5 comments about The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book that Will Change the Way You Do Business (Collins Business Essentials).

1. It is the typical manager's nightmare. A startup with a powerful idea wipes out all the dominance your large ogranisation had. It can happen overnite and without warning.
   
   How do you stop this nightmare from happening? Well, the answer could lie in The Innovator's Dilemma.
   
   Kishore Dharmarajan
   Author of Eightstorm: 8-Step Brainstorming for Innovative Managers



2. This book is highly engaging and actionable and helps companies understand how innovation is powerful and long-lasting. I also recommend "Something Really New" which was just released as another powerful resource on innovation in companies. Something Really New: Three Simple Steps to Creating Truly Innovative Products



3. With the Innovator's Dilemma, Clayton Christensen delivers a very powerful analysis of the role of innovation in gaining market leadership. The question raised is whether market leadership can be sustained through innovation alone. Indeed, the core of the Innovator's Dilemma illustrates how successful companies with established solutions, marquee customers and a valued brand keep being threatened and at time vanquished by start-ups. A recent example would be how established enterprise software vendors have been shaken up by disruptive startups: Remember Salesforce.com vs. Siebel Systems? Christensen addresses a difficult problem that most successful customer focused companies face. Precisely, because it is a formidable challenge for an established company to bring disrupting technology to its own installed base of customers.



4. This book analyzes why established successful companies repeatedly miss "less sensible" (to their own value network) innovations in the low-end "emerging" market and how products in the low end market eventually displace existing products in the entire market. The book does a comprehensive analysis of the phenomena.
   
   However, I am not convinced with the analysis. People make wrong forecasts of trends and miss emerging markets for many reasons. New entrants fail in trial and error with this extremely high risk game. Does it make sense for an established company to maintain an independent unit for playing this high risk game at a considerable expense? Or should they be the follower and let small companies bear the initial high cost ? I don't think there is a clear answer like what the author has suggested.
   
   There are some uncommon and incorrect use of technology terms (e.g. Java "protocol",computer "automated "design), which let you doubt the credibility and seriousness of the author. The writing is in fairly academic style with great clarity. But it can be repetitive in many places, revisiting the same materials.



5. OK, I admit, some of it can be a bit boring, especially the first couple of chapters. But the premise and his argument are great.
   
   A product manager who has not read this book is not a product manager at all!

5 comments about Obama's Challenge: America's Economic Crisis and the Power of a Transformative Presidency.

1. Robert Kuttner's new book has one redeeming quality. It allow me to offer something I never imaged I would have the opportunity to do. Offer some good advice to Barack Obama. In fact far better advice than Robert Kuttner. Senator Obama (and everyone else) do not waste your time or money buying and reading this bromide. That is one challenge our Democratic candidate for President should embrace enthusiastically.
   
   As for Mr. Kuttner let me recommend to President Obama he consider recommending as a new law that authors that promise much and deliver nothing face fines and other penalties. This can be one way for the new President to address the budget deficit. Since Mr. Kuttner is not alone in writing verbose volumes that have little to say and nothing original President Obama may well eliminate the Federal deficit by means of this one "novel" initiative.
   
   Think I'm being too flip. Here is a key passage from Mr. Kuttner on page 172, that reflects the quality of the entire book. I quote Mr. Kuttner,
   
   "Here is my advice to Obama on the health care front: Get your sea legs, address more pressing crises, demonstrate inspirational leadership - and take a little more time to get it right."
   
   That's right that is a typical example from Mr. Kuttner's book being touted as the guide book for the Obama Presidency in some circles, and a book that Amazon has made special arrangements to promote and distribute. I admit it I got Suckered by the hype.
   
   There is literally not a single original thought in the entire count them 200 pages. It is filled mostly with "filler" references to past Presidents back to Lincoln. Regurgitated historical facts most of us are very familiar and better presented by his sources. As for his advice to Obama it is the same list of standard proposals you read on every op-ed page. Day in and day out. I did not find one original proposal or piece of advice. I stand to be corrected if other reviewers find any.
   
   Let me conclude by proving the "audacity" of this book. It would be a mark of good form and respect for the readership for Mr. Kuttner to conclude with a precise definite enumerated compilation a summary of his key advice provided throughout the book to President Obama. There is no such list or summary because in a moment of self-awareness Mr. Kuttner was forced to admit to himself and to anyone else who buys this book. He has no such useful list of original useful advice to offer Barack Obama.
   
   My compliments to Amazon if they have the courage to print this review and in doing so warn Senator Obama to avoid Mr. Kuttner.



2. This small, interesting book begins "Barack Obama could be the first chief executive since Lyndon Johnson with the potential to be a transformative progressive president." Author Kuttner believes that will only happen if Obama is a more radical president than he is a presidential candidate. This does not mean operating outside the mainstream. Rather, it means the country needs radical changes, and Obama's role will be to make the country see that making those changes is necessary, therefore moving the effort into the mainstream.
   
   Kuttner has three disclaimers early on. First, he assumes Obama wins the presidency. Second, he is not a cheerleader or advisor to the Obama camp, just offering his own thoughts. Third, this is not a policy proposal. It is an examination of how Obama's presidency can truly change this nation, using examples from earlier transformative presidents -- Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan.
   
   Many of the ideas in Obama's Challenge will resonate with readers. Kuttner does not exaggerate the dire state of our economy, and gives sound reasons why we're in the sorry position we're in now. His suggestion that Obama will have to capture the imagination of the American people to fix our problems rings true.
   
   Robert Kuttner is also the author of The Squandering of America: How the Failure of Our Politics Undermines Our Prosperity, Family Re-Union: Reconnecting Parents and Children in Adulthood, and Everything for Sale: The Virtues and Limits of Markets.
   
   Here's the chapter list:
   
   1. A Great President or a Failed One
   * The hope of audacity
   * The economic trap
   * Depressed economy, depressed expectations
   * Financial collapse as a teachable moment
   * Breaking the frame
   * The character of transformation
   
   2. How Transformative Presidents Lead
   * The forgotten Roosevelt
   * Kennedy and Johnson: From impasse to transformation
   * Hell, what's the presidency for?
   * Missing the wave
   * Fatal triangles
   * Presidents at war
   * Preparing a nation for war
   * Fear itself
   * Leadership and partnership
   
   3. Audacity Versus Undertow
   * The fiscal cupboard is bare
   * How the right snookers the center
   * Government is perverse or incompetent
   * Redeeming government
   * Tax relief is the best benefit government can deliver
   * The private sector is invariably more efficient than the public
   
   4. Repairing a Damaged Economy
   
   5. A Work in Progress



3. Kuttner offers an appraisal of Obama as a uniquely talented, fully equipped, potentially transformative leader that should be obvious to anyone who heard his Philadelphia speech on race a couple of months ago or his near-perfect acceptance speech of recent days. Obama has shown himself to be equal parts intellect and inspiring motivator, a tactician capable of putting his opponent on the ropes by using the opponent's own weaponry, a visionary capable of seeing a perennially green forest but not at a loss for keeping count of the trees in his own back yard (or the number of back yards he's listed as owner of). So Kuttner's book is repeating the obvious and is basically a preachment to the choir. It won't change any minds, especially ones that it can't reach.
   
   What is not so obvious is Kutner's basic assumption: that America's problems and Obama's solutions are so transparently known to everyone that his Presidency is all but assured. In August millions of American voters who had previously fancied themselves as tolerant, unbiased types for allowing the Jefferson's into their home every week, suddenly saw on their giant HDTV screens not merely faces of another color but images of those who are on the brink of representing their own face. It is no longer a matter of viewing the "other" from a safe and comfortable distance, congratulating ourselves on our imagined tolerance, but of being wakened to the real possibility of the "other" becoming "us."
   
   The near-universal distaste for the previous administration and the illogic of a narrowing gap between two candidates, one of whom makes gaffe after gaffe and the other who can't afford the slightest misstep, is testimony to a pervasive, regressive darkness in the electorate, one that could make all of Kustner's arguments on behalf of a progressive Obama Presidency a moot point. McCain merely has to make it to the finish line to enable all those threatened by change--from bigots to wealth "preservers" to "better" Christians to Jehovah's "chosen" to those bottom-feeders who still imagine they enjoy one small entitlement--to "rationalize" their vote for McCain.
   
   Reading Kuttner's book is unlikely to increase your admiration of Obama (how "can" it?) and likely to increase the sting of an imminent injustice should he lose (unfortunate, if not tragic--an Obama Presidency would go a long way toward restoring our tarnished, near-irreparably damaged image in the eyes of the world not to the mention representing a victory for ideas (vs. slogans) and rhetoric (vs. ad hominem mud-slinging and mugging to the camera like the sophomoric cut-up in a high-school play)l.
   
   What happens behind those voting curtains in a mere two months will show America and the world a revealing self-portrait, one that could be anything but flattering. At that time we may realize the inadequacy of institutional education and the need for an entirely different paradigm for opening minds--perhaps a functional multi-party system. As Al Gore's indignation made clear months ago, unrestrained anger goes little beyond personal therapy. All Obama can do in the final stretch is hope that questioning the debacle of Iraq and seeking to restore the life and limbs of those soldiers who were maimed by it is not equated with a lack of patriotism. On the other hand, once people decide on a course of action, reason is quickly suspended in favor of rationalization (as was the case with Kerry's "swift-boating attackers).
   
   The real "challenge" is not Obama's but a public's that still sees 9/11 as a sanction for running scared and burying its head in the ground, repeating parroted code words--God, values, guns, pro-life, and family vs. evil, immorality, peace initiatives, civil liberties and, worst of all, liberalism--as those these terms and oppositions actually possessed thought and meaning. It's time to stop "blaming" Obama, Biden, McCain, or the government for a responsibility that lies with the electorate. For the present, perhaps the only consolation is knowing that, regardless of the outcome, we will once again deserve what we get.



4. In this brilliant new book Robert Kuttner challenges Barack Obama to break the debilitating frames of failure set by neoconservatives for the last 28 years, reassert a national agenda of government "of the people, by the people, and for the people" and reawaken our nation's collective soul and conscience. Kuttner uses Abraham Lincoln, FDR and LBJ as examples of presidents who were able to embrace and transform the national crises of their times, with the result of renewing the promise of America as a "land of opportunity" for all, rather than just a few of its citizens.
   
   One of Kuttner's central tenets in Obama's Challenge is that "Competent government and engagement of the people restores faith in the enterprise of government, and in turn restores the civic impulse." A philosophy based on the founding principles of the United States of America and the exact opposite of that espoused by neoconservatives intent on their self-fulfilling prophecy of management by incompetence, privatization of all federal functions and programs, and a deregulated marketplace laced with greed and corruption.
   
   Kuttner cites the following frames/reigning myths that need to be broken by a President Obama, both "to slay the failed ideology and to lead a recovery based on a far more robust use of government."
   
   1. The fiscal cupboard is bare.
   2. Government is generally perverse or incompetent.
   3. Tax cuts are one of the few benefits that governments can reliably deliver.
   4. Private markets invariably work better than government.
   5. Successful Democrats need to talk more like Republicans.
   
   Kuttner urges Obama to use the current economic situation as a "teachable moment" and to reframe the issues with the following assertions.
   
   1. There is in fact a crisis facing both the economic system and working Americans.
   2. The private sector is a source of great dynamism, but it can sure make a mess if left to its own devices.
   3. People's needs and economic recovery are more important right now than penny pinching.
   4. Tax cuts have gone mostly to the top, and haven't done a thing for most Americans.
   5. Government can do great things, and it particularly needs to do great things in an economic crisis.
   
   "Government is both the product and locus of political democracy - and only as good as our democracy. Our democratic institutions are where we come together to plan for the common good; they are the steward of our environment and future. If these structures are dismantled, disparaged, chronically underfunded, or eroded from within, all citizens are the poorer."
   
   In addition to the need for Obama to transform prevailing ideological assumptions and restore the public's confidence, Kuttner proposes the following specific programs and ideas to address America's economic crisis.
   
   1. An emergency federal works program to deliver public funds and decent jobs and address the $1.6 trillion infrastructure backlog.
   2. A program to repeal the Bush tax cuts.
   3. Work with Congress on a much more robust housing and mortgage rescue program.
   4. Rebuild secure financial markets with prudent regulation.
   5. Prize the labor movement as a constituency to be honored and enlarged.
   6. Professionalize the Human-Service Economy.
   7. Create an active labor-market policy.
   8. An Apollo-Scale commitment to Renewable Energy.
   9. Universal pre-kindergarten and better day care.
   10. Move toward Universal Health Care.
   11. Global regulation of finance and trade.
   12. Wind down America's entanglements in Iraq.
   
   In Obama's Challenge Robert Kuttner clearly identifies the ideologies and practices of the neoconservative "wrecking crew" world view that has given us our worst national economic crisis since the Great Depression. Kuttner believes that Barack Obama possesses the character and the capacity to achieve the greatness of a transformative presidency, and in this book he lays out a radically progressive framework that would allow such a president to "use his office to appeal to our best selves to change our economy, society, and democracy for the better." Highly recommended.



5. Robert Kuttner has performed a service in Obama's Challenge by bringing to the Democratic nominee's attention the pitfalls to be faced by the next Administration. The USA is facing a profound transition. Our citizens must adjust to the diminished role the US plays, economically, militarily and in its influence. While adapting to this new global reality and the rise of China, India, Brazil, Russia and other nations, the next US President must deal with the severest financial crisis since the Great Depression and the urgent need to shift our economy from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy.
   
   I hope that Obama, David Axelrod, David Plouffe and all of his team will read Robert Kuttner's wise analysis and go beyond that outdated "economics box" so as to address more fully the systemic crises our next president will face.

5 comments about Banker To The Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty.

1. Muhammad Yunus constructed a system in Bangladesh to help the poorest of the poor get loans for tiny amounts of money. Since its inception 1980, variations on this system have spread all over the world with great success.
   
   Yunus starts with the premise that credit should be a right, not a privilege, and the people who need credit the most are the ones locked out of the standard credit system. He recounts a story of a woman who makes bamboo stools. She borrows money to buy the raw materials from a middleman, and as repayment for that loan, she is forced to give the finished stool back to him. He then pays her 2 cents for her work. The raw materials cost only 22 cents, and if she just had that capital herself, she could buy her own bamboo and reap all of the profits from the final sale of the stool. But she doesn't have 22 cents and therefore is effectively a debt slave.
   
   Most people who hear about the concept of microfinance for the poor immediately ask, "Why do poor people pay the loans back?" The answer provided in "Banker to the Poor" is multi-faceted and not wholly satisfying, but it is clear that the system does work. Repayment rates are generally higher than loans given to the so-called credit worthy in standard loan arrangements. A rate of over 98% has been achieved.
   
   Repayment is encouraged by a combination of (1) a high level of interaction between bank workers and the borrower's communities, (2) fair and respectful treatment by the bank, (3) the formation local peer groups to encourage repayment, (4) short loan terms with weekly payments, (5) loans primarily to women, and (6) the fact that the borrowers know this is their one shot -- if they shirk repayment, they are screwed. Their *lives* are their collateral.
   
   The book is an easy, entertaining read, and the enthusiasm of the author for the topic is clear. His stories of individuals who have risen out of poverty through micro-loans is stirring, but toward the end of the book, he talks about poverty in a more philosophical way, and one can't help criticizing his idealism. He proposes a version of socially-conscious capitalism that he claims could help eradicate poverty from the entire world. Under his proposed system, corporations would be motivated by the sum of social utility and profit, not just profit alone. It's a nice thought, but it seems a little naive. But perhaps it takes such unbridled idealism to truly make an important difference in the world, as it seems Yunus has done.



2. Banker to the Poor is a really clear way of explaining what microfinance is as well as showing the drastic difference that $40 can make in people's lives. Shows the humanitarianism of microlending, why it's better than just giving people money, and how it can be a useful tool to help many people. I really recommend this book for anyone, and especially so for anyone interested in helping others or setting up programs to help others (my church is using microlending now).



3. This audio book was absolutely wonderful. I found it really inspiring and engaging. I was really surprised by how interesting it was, I was afraid it would be a little dry but that wasn't true at all. I enjoyed every chapter. This book really did make me want to change my life, it gave me a lot to think about that I'm still working with. In fact I hope I never stop thinking about it and the issues it opened up.
   
   The reader was very good, he had enough inflection in his voice to keep it interesting, but did not over play the words. It was the sort of narration that provided a similar feeling to reading myself, where I could put my own emphasis and voice to the words and not be distracted by the an overly dramatic narrator.



4. Banker To The Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty
   This is a life changing book! This book will change the way that you think about poverty and how to end it. In this book, Professor Yunus tells of his own journey in first recognising that the University in which he lectured in Economics, needed to impact his local community, and secondly, doing something about it. The book has all of the elements of a good novel, humour, romance, and drama, but it is so much more. Buy this book, read this book, and then join Kiva.org to make a difference.



5. A well written book about how Yunus successfully lent money to impoverished people in Bangladesh and, in so doing, empowered them to create better lives for themselves. The pages echo Yunus's faith in the human spirit, his dedication to eradicating poverty, and his tenacity to succeed in the face of naysayers cries. He talks about the origins of the banks name, The Grameen Bank and notes that Grameen derives from the word gram, or village.
   
   Yunus denounces typical methods of poverty reduction, such as those that tie funds to skills training. And he acknowledges that he has critics in this regard. He writes, "I firmly believe that all human beings have an innate skill. I call it the survival skill. The fact that the poor are alive is clear proof of their ability. They do not need us to teach them how to survive; they already know how to do this. So rather than waste our time teaching them new skills, we try to make maximum use of their existing skills. Giving the poor access to credit allows them to immediate put into practice the skills they already know - to weave, husk rice patty, raise cows, peddle a rickshaw." (p. 140).

5 comments about Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet.

1. This book presents about as complete a description you can find about the causes of extreme poverty and environmental threats and what can be done about it. The analytical part presents compelling evidence that without drastic action the world will be in deep trouble. For example. One the main causes of the poverty trap in poor countries is large family size. Even with the most effective fertility reduction program combined with a reduction of infant mortality (these two changes must be combined) the population of Africa will from 2005 to 2050 increase with 750 million.When only infant mortality is reduced the increase will be more than a billion. Most of this increase will be in the poorest countries.
   The book describes in detail how different negative trends reinforce each other leading to self reinforcing loops. It concerns, water shortage, shortage of oil and gas, overfishing, reduction of forest cover, reduction of arable land, pollution and an increase in temperature. Fortunately the author describes precise programs how these problems can still be solved. Also, what the free-market can and cannot do. The complementary roles of global organisations like the UN, national governments, business and NGOs are described.
   An example of such a detail is that the main problems cannot be solved without scientific and technological breakthroughs. For example there is plenty of fossil fuel in the form of coal. But a solution has to be found to sequestrate the harmful gases produced otherwise it will lead to environmental disaster. The author believes I think correctly, that fundamental research around this problem has to be organized and funded on a global scale by governments. This is not happening to day. It requires an integrated global approach, already at the R&D level.
   The author may be overoptimistic about governments, business and people in general to make short term sacrifices for long term gains. Historical events have been driven primarily by greed, national self-interest; wars, conquests, internal wars, colonilisation, slavery, overfishing, the financial crisis in 2008 are all examples. China rightly wants to increase the standard of living of its inhabitants; as yet almost regardless of the environmental consequences. The US and Europe have made little progress in reducing energy consumption even though they talk a lot about it and set ambitious targets.
   The missing link is how to change the attitudes from governments, business and people to be not only concerned about their own well being the next few years, but to be concerned for the well being of others over the next 20 years. It is urgent; it is not just a question of concern for the next generation.
   Fortunately, the book presents many examples of successful radical change projects. The challenge is to scale up to the level of the world.



2. Anyone with both a conscience and some degree of intellect would be glad to read Prof. Sachs' enumeration of the right policy priorities for mankind in the next 42 years, but I cannot help but feel that as noble as this book's goals are, it is ultimately a Utopian dream. The cold reality remains Exxon, Dubya and the American Theocracy (American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21stCentury), with gay-bashing and resource-exploitation as their prime priorities.



3. This is yet another classic from Jeffrey Sachs. Here is the most comprehensive and compelling list of issues facing Mother Earth in the twenty first century and also some excellent prescriptions for sustainable and inclusive global economic growth.
   
   The list of "six earth changing trends" starts with convergence. Thanks to globalization and relatively peaceful environment despite some regional tensions, most developing countries are catching up fast for the lost time in the last three decades. Sachs explains the concept of convergence and a thumb rule for forecasting faster growth rates of poorer countries, relative to their income levels. The good news is that poorer countries can grow faster. The flip side is that there are about 6 times more people on this planet today than in 1830 and this is expected to grow by another 40 % to 9.2 billion by 2050. Assuming steady economic growth rates, the global GNP is expected to reach around $ 400 Trillion from the current $ 67 Trillion, a six fold increase.
   
   The bad news is that this may not be achievable if we continue to adopt conventional technologies that deplete natural resources that have an adverse impact on the already fragile environment. Sachs quantifies his using the I = P*A*T equation, where the environmental impact of development equals the product of population, average income and the negative effect of conventional technologies. That means that by 2050, we would have environmental pollution levels that are about 8.4 times than today, which is clearly unsustainable. Hence the urgent need for adopting sustainable technologies on a rapid scale, whereby I=P*A/S where S in the denominator stands for sustainable technologies.
   
   The impact of global warming is also explained extremely well. Global warming caused primarily by CO2 is discussed in detail. The analysis of the rise in global temperatures as a consequence of CO2 levels rising from 280 ppm in 1950 to around 380 ppm today is alarming. Global warming is a vicious cycle since more CO2 in the atmosphere traps more infrared rays from being reflected back into outer space, thereby further increasing atmospheric temperatures. The warmer oceans in turn release the dissolved CO2 into the atmosphere, adding fuel to fire. Sachs points out to the availability of vast carbon resources that can be gainfully utilized to meet our energy needs, while simultaneously using Carbon Capture and Sequestration Technologies to contain CO2 emissions.
   
   Larger populations need more food. Increasing incomes and urbanization means we have lesser people in villages to grow more food from the same acreage of land. It is interesting to note that in the year 2008, for the first time in the history of humanity, 50% of the people are now living in urban areas. The net addition of population from now till 2050 is likely to be added in urban areas. This calls for substantial increase in agricultural productivity in rural areas. Unfortunately, water emerges as a major constraint due to excessive usage, run-offs, depletion of ground water and mismanagement. Global warming further adds to the crisis due to melting of glaciers and increasing variability in rainfall. Moreover water has spillover effects and hydrological interdependence in scare regions can cause severe tensions and conflicts.
   
   We enter the new millennium with such daunting challenges, as well as with a sixth of the world's population trapped in severe poverty. Sachs then turns to his favorite topic of global cooperation to end poverty as pledged by the Millennium Development Goals. Starting from increasing agricultural productivity through high yielding, drought resistant, low tillage crops using modern irrigation techniques, he explains how we can lift the subsistence economies into the first rung of the ladder of development. Small investments in providing treated mosquito nets and spraying of houses can significantly reduce incidents of malaria and improve health and life expectancy.
   
   Markets alone cannot solve global problems of this scale. Public participation and funding of infrastructure, basic education and health care are some of the critical items that markets tend to ignore. Poor countries are in desperate need for aid to free themselves from the poverty trap. For the G-8 it is a matter of adhering to the promise of 0.7 % of GNP towards developmental aid. Unfortunately, this is not met. Sachs once again makes a passionate appeal for adherence to these promises.
   
   There is a separate chapter on US foreign policy, which comes under heavy criticism for excessive defense expenditure to the tune of about $ 1.5 billion a day while totally neglecting economic aid and diplomatic initiatives. Long term solution to peace is economic development and not military intervention argues Sachs.
   
   Overall, the emphasis of the book is on sustainable development and the urgent need to eliminate poverty, two basic duties that all of us as global citizens need to own. In addition, all institutions, Governments, NGOs, Universities, Multinationals and Charitable Institutions should play a significant role. Classic examples of such successful global co operations in the past include eradication of small pox and Asia's Green Revolution.
   
   Two other books that I recommend as worthy supplementary readings are:
   
   1. The end of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs
   2. The Bottom Billion by Paul Collier
   
   The time for action is now.



4. What a wonderful read! If you want to understand the planet that we are inheriting at this moment, in real time, then this book is for you. Get your global bearings here.



5. I received the book on time and in very good condition. This is a wonderful book that gives you a clear view of the problems facing the world and how we can solve them.

5 comments about Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism.

1. I read this book after hearing the author, Kevin Phillips, give a radio presentation to the Cambridge Forum. Phillips was familiar to me as a spokesman for conservative perspectives over a span of decades, a perspective that I never shared. Thus, I was a bit skeptical when I first heard his presentation on this topic. However, I was quickly impressed by his careful, scholarly analysis, and have come to agree that he is exactly right. Phillips' central point is that the United States has abrogated its leadership position in the world by virtue of having stopped being a nation that produces goods and services of real value and becoming a nation who's primary business is the manipulation of financial markets and debt. He cites earlier examples of the Maritime Dutch republic of the 1700s, Great Britain around the time of WWI, and even Rome. The sobering point is that once a nation has gone this route, the course is irretrievable. He finds lots of blame for this situation, and it is not all deposited on any single political party...there is plenty to go around! He discusses our biggest product, Credit Debt, the root causes of the rise in oil prices, and the impact of right-wing evangelicals on the administration's feeble approach to dealing with our major challenges. This is not a feel-good book, but it is an important contribution to helping Americans understand our current situation. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED



2. "Guns don't hurt people. People hurt people." It's the same in shadow finance. If you invest for yourself, or if you want to invest for yourself, but you don't trust a system that keeps the middle class investors in the dark, that over-extends its borrowing to crisis levels, that sells questionable contracts & mortgages not only to naive Americans but to unsuspecting foreign institutions (buyer beware), then you will find the root causes of our 2007 financial lock-up in BAD MONEY useful. Like Roger Lowenstein's books describing earlier lock-ups, Kevin Phillips' book outlines how people we trust repeatedly let us down. Notice that I use the phrase "lock-up" & not "sell-off". From the early 1990s to the present, Lieberman, Greenspan, Paulson, Gramm, etc., all have fought against transparency in the financial markets by turning the discussion towards the fear of more regulations. Buyer beware!



3. Does the mortgage credit crisis bother you? Are you concerned about high oil prices? Do you get the feeling that Wall Street is largely a high-stakes casino, where insiders collect billions on winning bets, and also collect billions on losing bets, payed off with taxpayer bailouts? Do you want to understand why this is happening and how the game works? Then go find a different book. The author of this book is a "big idea guy", and he does nothing to elucidate his major points, all of which I was painfully aware before reading page one.
   
   The writing is in a churning stream of consciousness style, looping back over the same topics several times, in no particular sequence, as if hoping that some meaningful connections would appear just from the proximity of the paragraphs. Most annoying, is the habit of introducing an interesting topic, promising, "more on this in a later chapter", then repeating the introductory comments without pushing further when the later chapter arrives.
   
   There is no way to deny that the problems outlined in the book are important and deserve attention. Most of the positive reviews here award 4 or 5 stars based on that alone. But not only are no solutions offered, the problems themselves are not broken down and explained in any meaningful way. The comparisons of recent American history to the declines of previous empires is interesting, but superficial. If the thesis is that an over-emphasis on financial services leads to decline, I want to know why. I believe it could be true, but I don't understand why. No help here.
   
   I do know that when the government takes the downside out of risky behavior, by promising taxpayer bailouts for failed lenders, that it's a recipe for disastrously risky behavior. That's obvious. Why is it allowed to happen? Who can stop it? Somebody please give me the name of a book that can help.



4. Kevin Phillips, you have done it again. I don't know why you morphed from a Republican strategist into a harsh critic of right-wing, robber barons' assault on the welfare state and its dream of economic justice. But you hit the nail on the head time-and-time-again: entrenched interest groups, the collapse of real political debate, the transition from productive to financial capital, the politics of oil, the protection of Wall Street by the Fed. giving rise to meltdowns rather than tamable booms and preventable busts, the shift of wealth from those who labor or save to those who speculate, financial gambling in the form of derivatives and other synthetic securities which reward their inventors and defraud both latecomers and the public at large, the embrace of moral hazard which is a subsidy for those too big to fail and happen to be friends and peers of the government officials who are supposed to regulate them. I know someone who hustled subprime mortgages for speculators by knowing how to work the computer programs lenders use to assess mortgage risk; his clients had absolutely no equity. There was so much money to hustle, lenders were not interested in due diligence. They chopped the loans into little pieces, packaged them to disguise risk and sold them as equities. I am not sure the broker is not in jail. He was small potatoes. How about the Mertons, Greenspans, Bernankes and legions of Ph.D.s from MIT who claimed they were diversifying risk only to discover when things went wrong they were gambling on air and there was no liquidity? A fixed roulette wheel does not help when too many people learn how it is loaded. See Bookstaber's excellent A Demon of Our Own Design: Markets, Hedge Funds, and the Perils of Financial Innovation. As Phillips points out, a good deal of finance in the US is a giant subsidized Ponzi scheme. Only in a world of greed and class oppression would labor be taxed more than return on capital.
   It is a pretty shabby picture but unfortunately 90% of the voting public has little ability or interest in understanding it. No wonder, as Phillips points out, Obama's backers will swallow his hedge fund contributors without noticing what their presence in his camp means. Although Joe Biden may bring a white bread image to the Democratic ticket, he also brings the bipartisanship which makes it impossible to honestly name, if not solve, both foreign policy problems and the increasingly skewed distribution of wealth in the US. If I were to talk to my middle/upper-middle class friends about how much we all benefit from the set up as it is, they would either not listen or regard me as attacking them.
   Kevin, you have the courage to tell it like it is. But is anyone listening?
   Besides the fact that the book is a bit repetitive and, having listened to it as a book on tape, the narrator is overly dramatic making each nugget of corruption sound like an apocalypse, I find some of the overarching historical comparisons a bit of a stretch. The declines of Rome, Spain, the Dutch Confederation, and finally Britain are interesting background, and some aspects are reminiscent of what is happening to
   America now, but each had its own very individual causes. Metropolitan Spain, the master of a great empire, was always a debtor. That is how it fought its wars. New World silver and gold just made it possible to fight nastier wars of the counter reformation. Indebtedness was not some declining empire phenomena. Italian and German bankers were paying for the conquest of Granada years before Columbus sailed. Similarly depopulation and decline don't really fit either England or Spain. Spain had plenty of poor from denuded Andalusia to get rid of and opportunity lay abroad. Besides wool for the Low Lands, wine and olives, Spain had little industry and needed less when the geld started pouring in. And, at the height of the industrial revolution, England was exporting it street ruffians and poor to Australia. There was no place for them at home even though industry needed surplus labor to keep wages down. It had all the displaced, barefoot Irish it needed. England only really bankrupted itself in WWII. Where its decline began is hard to say. It may have been initiated way before coupon clipping and remittance men of Edwardian England became subjects of literature. How about sometime between the Crimean and Boer wars? An interesting take on Britain is in Correlli Barnett's reactionary book Collapse of British Power (History/20th Century History). He sees the decline as a function of free trade, public schools' crippling of ruling-class moral fiber, post WWI pacifism, and the greater cost of defending the empire and Commonwealth in comparison to its military return especially during WWII. As for the Dutch Republics, I guess I need to find a good economic history of them. From I had thought their small population and increasing cost of shipping made them hopelessly outflanked by their larger English neighbors. The Dutch had prospered by early textile manufacture, shipping cheaper (paying their sailors less in the Baltic trade) and stealing weaker Portugal's overseas entrepots. ( See Charles Boxer, The Dutch Seaborne Empire 1600-1800 and John Keay The Spice Route: A History (California Studies in Food and Culture).) In the end the Dutch Republics were outcompeted and outfought by England.
   Despite the shortcoming in Phillips' comparative history, his clarion call of decline is well taken. I like to think of Fulbright's "arrogance of power." We are headed for a fall, but maybe not the apocalypse Phillips trumpets. Our increased productivity from the US lead in computers has a lot to do with the wealth generated since the late 1980's. That is production, not finance. It just was, and still is, being lopsidedly distributed leading to private splendor (fed much by finance) and public squalor. The consequences of Lyndon Johnson's guns and butter and the 70's oil boycott stopped middle/lower-middle class growth and Reagan reached into their pockets and gave their subsidence to the upper/middle and upper classes along with a giant share of the new productivity. More people should read Phillips' books. But then it is not in many peoples', who know better and vote, interest to advocate for his implied solutions. It might preclude million dollar houses, jet-setting and three Volvos in the drive way . And as for the lower classes who might really profit from his criticism, they are too busy paying their subprime mortgages, watching television, playing video games or shopping at Wal-Mart. So we have a world of unnecessary conflicts and economic injustice. Remember Tolstoy's description of the Russian nobility ignoring Napoleon's advance on Moscow. Rather than Götterdämmerung, we have the twilight of our empire which is OK because of all the harm to which our arrogance has led. Our successors, the Chinese, don't give any sign they will dominate the world any more fairly.
   Charlie Fisher author of Dismantling Discontent: Buddha's Way Through Darwin's World



5. Kevin Phillips' BAD MONEY receives Scott Brick's excellent acting skills as it provides a solid non-fiction account of oil troubles, debt, and the bursting of the American financial bubble. Any collection strong in nonfiction economics listens needs BAD MONEY: RECKLESS FINANCE, FAILED POLITICS, AND THE GLOBAL CRISIS OF AMERICAN CAPITALISM.

5 comments about Development as Freedom.

1. Great concepts and ideas, just not very interesting to read. I could only read a page at a time before my mind began to wander off.



2. Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen strikes a beautiful balance here between socialists, who have their hearts in the right place but refuse to accept that the market is the best way to help people, and libertarians who believe in freedom but don't acknowledge that being poor limits your freedom as well. Hailing from India, Sen's focus is on development economics with a view on helping the world's poorest.
   
   At the centerpiece of Sen's philosophy is freedom: He believe that freedom of action and life is the most fundamental human right. His philosophy comes very close to the "Four Freedoms" articulation of FDR in that he believes both in active freedoms (of labor and exchange, for example) as well as freedom from want, which can be brought about by state assistance. In addition, he also believes that giving people freedom is the best way to bring about progress: hence the title, development as freedom.
   
   Some sections of the book read as economics, some read as political philosophy, and some read as a modern history. Sen explains why there has never been a famine in any functioning democracy, even though some of them have been among the poorest nations on Earth. He also advocates convincingly for the education and emancipation of women.
   
   So far I have only good things to say about this book, but I didn't really enjoy reading it and only got through it because I was on a transatlantic flight. Why? Simply put, the writing in the book is painful. Not second-language painful: Sen clearly masters the English language, has an extensive vocabulary and is comfortable with his subject matter. The problem is that the writing is too obtuse: adverbs and obscure words abound, phrases drag on and it's sometimes difficult even for an absorbed reader to figure out what exactly is being said. One simple example: "But while the causal relation is indeed significant, the vindication of freedoms and rights provided by the causal linkage is over and above the directly constitutive role of these freedoms in development." Such sentences abound.
   
   No argumentative book is perfect, and I sometime disagreed with Sen's arguments such as when he attacked utilitarianism. Overall, however, Sen has put together a coherent economic philosophy that focuses on results and seems to be in line with what works in the real world. If you can get through the heavy, opaque writing, then there are great insights to be gleaned from this book.



3. This is a good book by great economist. But, if you are not an economist, like me, you may suffer a bit through the general discussion on economic philosophies through the first few chapters. Once into the later part of the book where modern case studies and data illustrate his point, I found his argument very deep and interesting.
   
   Amartya Sen chooses to describe poverty not as a lack of resources, but as a lack of freedoms. Those freedoms include choosing where to live and work, with whom to associate, freedom to choose our leaders and decide the rules we live by, and many others. This key point is useful in that it does not focus solely on maximization of wealth as a way out of poverty. The problem with poverty is not lack of money, but that lack of money means that people are not free to make their own way in life. They may be trapped being at the mercy of nature, an opressive government, or an economy cripled by bad policy. The conclusion therefore, is that money alone cannot fix the real problem. Government reform, economic liberalization, and the general increase of personal freedoms is the true end we are striving for. Increasing incomes is one of several necessary steps to be accomplished and not an end in and of itself.
   
   Sen's thesis in this work is often reduced by others to simple phrases like "democracies never have famines" or other simplistic phrases that are not entirely accurate with what Sen is actually arguing. You can find exceptions to some of these simple summaries, but the whole of Sen's argument remains very compelling describing the roles and responsibilities of individuals, institutions, and governments in achieving development and real progress.



4. If you only have a passing interest in development theory, you may find this book terribly boring and hard to read. Certainly, he doesn't go out of his way to be entertaining.
   
   But if you are looking for real innovation in thought and discussion on this issue, then this book is a must read. It really added a new voice to the discussion of international development, and is oft cited and referred to in papers on the topic.
   
   If you want to get up to speed on the modern debate on development theory, pick this up, read it, critique it in your own mind, really think about it, and move on.



5. Amartya Sen's book answers a question that current development practices beg: Development for the sake of what? He provides grounding for his claim that freedom is both the process to vibrant development, and the goal.
   
   Sen distinguishes his speculative new approach on economic development, from the most traditional:
   
   * Approaches that focus their attention in achieving some levels in development's proxy variables - per capita income; income distribution and poverty levels or health, education, and safety indexes-
   * Approaches based in levels of social satisfaction (levels of utility) based in individual/subjective "maps" of preferences.
   * And finally, others approaches focused in the capacity of a particular community to achieve what Sen calls substantive freedom -centralized welfare approach- or procedural freedom -libertarian approach-.
   
   
   Sen speculation seems to be relevant in many ways:
   
   1. First, there is no doubt we are in a moment of enormous changes and mayor crises. Our mass production, oil based civilization is coming to an end with all the resistance, violence and waste it implies. Our national democracies -and its institutions such as legislation, justice, presidency and other more decentralized as media, lobbyist networks, or intelligence- have showed significant weaknesses in addressing global issues, and a systematic tendency to favor elites' games. There are mayor power shift opening the space for extended cultural re-valuations of values based in the emerging preeminence of China and India.
   2. Second, there is an emerging new universe hold together by the internet and it capacity to sustain digital communities and digital worlds that have proved that is possible to create massive and sophisticated non-market value. These emerging universes embody a new culture of collaboration that is influencing and been influenced by the traditional forces of the molecular world. The technological force nurturing these changes has many resemblances with the historical opening produce by Gutenberg print press in 1450.
   3. Third, there is some resignation with the current technocratic approaches to development such as those represented by Jeffrey Sachs.
   4. Fourth, the collapse of the old order and the emergence of a new order may damage the possibilities to express the ethical ideals of the modern civilization -individual freedom- by enforcing control with new technologies and old institutions, or it may contribute to create a new Digital Renascence, or it may bring something new we are no able to see yet. A new understanding of freedom and human agency.
   5. Putting at the center of the economic development conversation -as Sen does- the notion of development as expanding freedom, the notion of freedom itself, and the expansion of freedom to non-human life it seems to be a powerful tribute from the best of the past to the emerging and unbirth future. Sen is bringing a new invigorating perspective to an old conversation.

5 comments about The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time.

1. You, being a smart person who is up on contemporary debates in economics and development and/or are a reader of Vanity Fair, probably already know all about Sachs and this book.
   
   Sachs made his name giving "shock therapy" to various third world economies. He recommended they jack up interest rates, and pushed them towards neo-liberal free market structures. His career hit a bit of a bad patch when he was associated with the economic meltdown of the former Soviet Socialist Republic. This book is his recommendations for development in Africa.
   
   Sach's ideas at base are pretty simple - Sub Saharan Africa needs lots and lots more aid. This aid should be put to use curing easily defeatable diseases and establishing local agrarian and, eventually, manufacturing economies. Oh, and right wing type who say that more aid won't fix the problem are wrong. That's about it.
   
   I think Sach's has this all about half right. More aid is a good idea, but alone, and in the style he suggests, I doubt it will lead to an end to poverty. Paul Collier's more nuanced book The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It, which I just finished, and will review soon, gives a better battle plan for dealing with seriously troubled countries. Sach's plan is a little too throw-money-at-the-problem for me.
   
   Still, this book is worth a read. If you're going to talk about world poverty now a days (and I tend to talk about world poverty a lot), you going to have to know what Sach is up to. He is by far the biggest name in the field. He may not always be right, but he's the player that you need to know about.



2. The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Out Time by Jeffery Sachs, is an optimistic, forceful argument for the economic potential of developing countries and the necessity of increased in aid from rich countries to realize it.
   
   Jeffrey Sachs is an accomplished macro-economist, currently at Columbia University, who has experience helping poor countries get on track to development. While, often described as left-leaning, he makes strong cases in favor of free-trade, market forces, and the role of the private sector in achieving economic development. He does often tout his own success regarding recommendations for economic reforms that enhanced development in impoverished. However, given the overall pessimistic attitude that many have towards real, subtantial economic development in these difficult places, I am not so sure it was out of place.
   
   While, I have a certain amount of skepticism towards Official Development Assistance, ODA, that Sachs makes a case for. His argument is compelling, especially in areas like health and education, that do not have a history of being served well by market forces alone. Even in infrastructure development, while rich countries now rely on significant private sector involvement, during their initial development stage, it was entirely a public endeavor.
   
   In the end, I am more willing to accept Sachs' argument that ODA is an essential part of what poor countries need to achieve sustainable economic development. I am in entire agreement that promises we make as a nation need to be fulfilled, and not given lip service. The other option is to not make those kinds of promises, but the current situation is dishonorable with regard to the gap Sachs illuminates between the United States' promised aid and the United States' actual aid to developing countries. I do think we need to hear more about technological innovation and technology transfer, that Sachs seems to assume will happen if the proper economic conditions are established. I am not yet convinved of that. Also, I still believe that the devil will be in the details as far as ODA is concerned, and if not executed properly we could easily establish incentives for those participating on both sides of the divide that work against our real objectives.
   
   And lastly, I should add, I found the foreword by Bono of U2 to be very thoughtful and eloquent on the subject. I was more suprised than I should have been, I suspect.



3. Jeffrey Sachs uses his broad knowledge to frame the context of a call for action to end extreme poverty in our generation. He demonstrates through detailed statistical comparisons the evolution of the widening gap of economic opportunity between the world's regions, and provides interesting narrative examples to support his conclusions.
   
   Although the statistics sometimes are mind-numbing, Sachs does a good job of creating graphical representations in the form of world maps, which serve to educate the reader and demonstrate the often overlooked connections between health, education and economic development. He has "done his homework" in providing a wealth of historic perspectives on the problems we observe in today's economy.
   
   Sachs uses his groundwork effectively as a springboard to inspire our thinking about how we can help create a better world by doing relatively simple things. Again, he uses the narrative to demonstrate how small amounts of money, medicine or appropriate technologies, delivered to the point of need, can make a huge difference in the outcomes for people living in or near extreme poverty.



4. the man who has brought destruction to the Russian economy through the "shock therapy" and preparing the ground for his zionist jewish friends in Russia to own all the key national assets, now goes on to tell us what to do with the rest of the world...his books should be prohibited



5. I read. A lot. That said, only half this book is worth the time and energy it took me to read it. The middle half, to be specific. The first few chapters are dedicated to Sachs detailing to us that, no, he's not an idiot writing about something he's had no experience with and that, yes, he can help to solve macroeconomic problems. The end chapters are all Sachs recapping what he said in the rest of the book with charts and graphs that start to become meaningless if you're not a economist or a student with a couple econ classes under your belt. The middle, in my opinion, is the only redeeming part of this book that mentions far too often big-names Sachs has met and important jobs he's held. The middle actually talks about his plan for ending extreme poverty by 2015 and how we can do it. The rest of the book is just padding. So read chapters 8 - 15 if you want to "read" the book. Donate money to an NGO if you want to do something towards ending poverty with your time.

5 comments about The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It.

1. Recommend this book to anyone who ponders the fate of the poorest countries of the world. Some very interesting theories and anecdotes about how they came to be that way.
   All well argued and easy to read for the layman.
   And 50% cheaper via Amazon compared to ordering it via my local bookstore !



2. The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It
   
   Paul Collier wrote this book with all the facts on the table.
   He understands what he is talking about. As an African I couldn't agree more
   with what he wrote. He has laid out the 4 major traps that poor countries(countries with slow growing economies) are faced with.Paul Collier states that these four traps are:
   
   -The Conflict trap
   -The Natural Resource trap
   - Being Landlocked with Bad Neighbours
   - and Bad Governance in a small country
   
   He goes on to explain how poor states can be helped out of these traps.This is a great book that everyone who cares about the poor must own. It offers strong solutions that the world community must take seriously and work hard to implement. This book was well researched for. Great Book.Great work Paul Collier. I'd forever keep this book.



3. 
   I love books like this. I am not a development expert not involved in international business nor government. Just a average middle class guy who tries to think beyond the bounds of my little world.
   
   Can't argue whether anything he put on these pages is wrong or right. It's engaging writing and I often found myself pausing to ponder some point Collier makes. All-in-all, a great read.
   
   One additional note: The first chapter is very wonkish...lots of statistics and figures. It may put you off and keep you from reading further....if so just skip to Chapter 3. You can still get the gist of Collier's argument.



4. Collier is a serious scholar in the world of development and here he has written a very important book. Here is the basic argument - while it sucks to be poor in countries like India, India is heading for relative prosperity. Where is really, really sucks to be poor is in a number of countries, concentrated in Africa where there is little hope of breaking out of a cycle of severe poverty. Collier pinpoints four ways in which these countries stay at the bottom - (1) they are racked by civil wars; (2) they're rich in a specific natural resource which stifles economic group in other areas; (3) they are surrounded by awful neighbors; and/or (4) they are a small country which is consistently horrifically governed. Collier proposes a number of concrete steps to deal with some of these problems, steps which I find to be realistic if perhaps politically unlikely at times. For example, Collier is totally in support of military intervention, of course he thinks there is a right way and wrong way to do it, but still, you're not hearing Jeff Sachs talk about sending in guns to cure poverty and with the disaster that has been the Iraq war, I think it will be a long time before the developed world is interested in dangerous humanitarian missions.
   
   This is the book of a man who has spent a long time in world of bureaucracies whose mandate is to fight poverty, and some of Collier's ideas are a bit gun-ho in reaction to what he rightly thinks is a lack of will power from the developed world. I don't think all of his ideas are good ones, and many of them I think are unlikely given the developed world's current lack of commitment to fighting poverty, but if you have any interest in development and poverty reduction you have to read this book.



5. What do we do with them?
   
   Prof. Collier of Oxford University, has done years of research, publishing, conferences, on this topic. Yet, one-size- fit-all solution never came up.
   
   With civil war, ethnic conflict, fighting for natural resources, bad governance, bad neighbors, military power, aids from G8, law, trade policy issues, one would think that the solution is not possible.
   
   What is needed is to have a strong and capable leadership at the top. With a strong leader, the country can change.
   
   We need to focus on a group of countries at a time. G8 countries are drilling oil, gas, and minerals in Africa now. China recently sent 500,000 to Africa to build highway, bridges, telephone systems, etc.
   It is possible to accomplish.
   
   But this book does not include any of the African success stories.
   Everyone knows the problem. But the solution is the most important for the bottom billions.

5 comments about Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age (Russell Sage Foundation Co-Pub).

1. Regardless of the political party you identify with, this is a great informative read if you are interested in US politics, especially in this day and age with our failing economy.



2. I've been searching for some data on how well off people are during the different rules and along came unequal democracy. If you now people that keep trying to convince you that if you vote for the Dems, you will be over taxed to the gates of hell, this is a must read. It's a text book but very readable.



3. I would hardly trust a political scientist to do the work of an economist - and this is what this author attempts to do. A basic fallacy taught in introductory economics is "post hoc ergo proctor hoc" - after the fact, therefore because of the fact - and could it not be that Bartel's causation works the same way? His assertions are causally flawed - for example, one cannot attribute the growth of the 1990's to Clinton - the economic "successes" of his administration are purely a case of a candidate that was elected at the right place at the right time. Clinton is such a shameless, vain individual that he (and now his wife) happily credit their savvy with our successes as a nation during that period. It's unfortunant that we work like Bartel's that only add to their ego.
   
   A less salacious reframing would be to simply note that the poor's position has grown over all election cycles, just like the rich. Granted, the rich's position has grown faster, but then so has our economy. The true, central failing of this text is that Bartel, like so many others, preys on peoples notion that the economy is a finite pie and if the rich have more, the poor have less.
   
   Recommended reading for the envious and political science majors who think their degree has value beyond a predictable path to law school.



4. "Unequal Democracy" presents the results of a six-year exploration of the political causes and consequences of economic inequality in America. It was inspired by the substantial escalation of this inequality in recent years. Total income going to the top 0.1% of income earners has more than tripled, from 3.2% in the late 1950s to 10.9% in 2005; that going to the top 1% rose from 10.2% to 21.8%. Further, this widening is accelerating. Despite this trend, 80% believe that though you may start out poor, if you work hard you can make lots of money - more than any other developed nation. This belief undermines motivation for change.
   
   Bartels believes that the most significant domestic policy initiative of the past decade has been a massive government-engineered transfer of additional wealth from the lower and middle classes to the rich via substantial reduction in federal income taxes for the rich.
   
   Economists have found little evidence that large disparities promote growth, or that progressive tax rates retard growth by discouraging economic effort.
   
   Meanwhile, political campaigns have become dramatically more expensive, increasing the reliance of elected officials on those who can afford to help finance their re-election bids. At the same time, membership in labor groups, a previously countervailing force, has substantially declined.
   
   On average over the past half century, real incomes of middle-class families grew 2X under Democrats vs. Republicans, and working poor families grew 6X faster under Democrats - even after allowing for differences in economic circumstances.
   
   So why do those with lower incomes vote for Republicans? Bartels tells us that contrary to the theme of "What Happened to Kansas," moral values do not trump economics as a basis for lower-income voting behavior. Bartels offers evidence that the contradiction is explained by confusion generated by mixing "working class" (defined often as those w/o a college education) with lower-income. The working class has a lot of relatively high earners that are influenced by the moral values issues.
   
   Bartels then contends that Republican success in presidential races is due to voters' overemphasis on election-year economic growth, vs. the superior longer-term performance of Democratic presidents, but lesser achievement during the last year of their terms.
   
   Finally, its on to the estate ("death") tax. Actions to reduce and eliminate it during the early Bush II years represent about 15% of the impact of the overall tax reduction package. Bartels asserts that there is enormous misunderstanding about this tax regarding the wideness of its applicability. As a result, it is a wonder that it still exists.
   
   Bottom Line: "Unequal Democracy" presents a carefully documented set of conclusions about an important and timely topic; its only drawback is that sometimes the statistics get too deep.



5. The facts stand for themselves outside the realm of Partisan politics. Idealists hate facts. Fanatics hate facts. I Love facts. Whose ideas work the best is what I want. Most Americans would Love to make more money and do better each and every year. Who can argue against that except a suicidal maniac.

5 comments about Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How It Can Renew America.

1. Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RMK10X9GC0GJ4 CFR member, New York Times columnist , and Pulitzer Prize winning author Thomas Friedman has come out with a thought
   provoking book sure to stir up a lot of controversy. Is there truth in this book or is this just propaganda Friedman is
   spitting out so his CFR and Bilderberg buddies can profit off the "Green Movement" via carbon taxing, environmental
   regulation, ect? Friedman contends that the United States most act now. Two or three years down the road will be
   to late. I would love for nuclear and solar technologies to be developed, but I just don't think they will ever be allowed
   to be developed. I hope I am wrong, but I just don't see the elite globalist giving up an opportunity to profit off of carbon
   taxing and carbon credits. I have seen proposals on how the big banks and corporations can profit off of tracking and
   taxing one's carbon footprint. One part of the book that I do not agree with and I believe the majority of the scientific
   community will not agree with is that the earth is heating up. Global cooling is actually occuring and it is going to
   continue to occur for at least the next ten years. I am really surprised at some of the statements Friedman makes
   about global warming. I go to a research university and none (yes none) of my professors think that global warming
   is occuring. One may be interested to know that CO2 is a life gas, and the earth actually can support much more of it.
   I do not think that Friedman spends enough time discussing the cyclical nature of global heating and cooling.
   Friedman goes on to discuss why it is so important for the United States to go to "Code Green".
   One should really investigate and study what Friedman says. Search for the truth, prove everything to yourself.
   Don't believe Friedman or believe me until you have checked things out yourself. It is my motto to always be learning
   for as many hours of the day as I can. One thing I have learned over the years is to always ask yourself who profits.
   Following the money is usually the fastest to finding out what is really going on. If I may suggest two titles that have
   helped my studies greatly. I would encourage one to check out Don't Like to Read, Then Don't, Listen!: How to Turn
   Any Type of Text Into Audio Files That Can Be Read to You! I know that many individuals out there are like me and
   would rather listen to material than have to read it themselves. I use programs like the one that is reading this review
   to have books read to me. This is a god send for me. The title Getting Things Done, presents excellent time / life
   stlyle management strategies. One can get these titles on amazon.
   
   Getting Things Done (isbn 0142000280)
   
   Don't Like to Read, Then Don't, Listen!: How to Turn Any Type of Text Into Audio Files That Can Be Read to You! (isbn
   978-1438252452)



2. It is interesting that this book comes out right after Hank Paulson, the U.S. Treasury Secretary, announced what amounts to the government nationalization of America's two largest mortgage lenders. Both Friedman and Paulson, a former top Wall Street executive have spent the last ten years applauding the idea of allowing "market" forces run the world.
   
   In this book Friedman has largely reversed his views when it comes to energy, presenting some really very good ideas on what needs to be done such as tax incentives for renewable energy and the use the tax system to reduce destructive forms of energy.
   
   I don't share a lot of Friedman's economic views but he is an intelligent journalist who previously wrote some excellent books on the Middle East. Friedman understands the disastrous geopolitical aspects of America's current addiction to foreign oil. He deserves credit for seeing that major government action is needed to reverse this.
   
   People should be aware that in energy as in all too many aspects of global environmental policy, there really is no "free" market. There are already huge subsidies for various industries.
   
   Along with this book I would recommend Lester Brown's Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, Third Edition. I have other relevant books in the lists on my profile.
   
   Friedman's high visibility makes this book relevant even if you don't agree with him. He has access to many important people, and their comments are in the book. Thus, the book is also a way to see what certain leadership elements think about the subjects at hand.
   
   I would recommend buying this book.



3. This book lays out a practical plan for the US to take the lead in the inevitable greening of the planet.
   
   Whether you are a a believer in global warming as a natural long-term trend, a crisis situation or even a non-believer, many will acknowledge that the earth's weather patterns seem to be changing and that we are using valuable resources at a dangerous high rate, needlessly.
   
   What I really like about this book is that Thomas Friedman offers doable American solutions that will help our country to lead the world in conscious, intelligent energy use through tax incentives and credits. This book is solution-based minus the doom and gloom tone so popular these days, and suggests that it's not too late for the US to change our carbon footprint dramatically.
   
   Whether you "buy" the author's positions on global warming or not, this book will make you think about our energy options and our position in the world's energy picture. I recommend this book to anyone who's concerned about energy solutions, particularly in the US.



4. Tom Friedman has written what is probably the most important book published in the past 50 years. Having been a Professor of Environmental Technology for three decades I can unequivocally say that Friedman has pulled it all together in a very readable book. There is HOPE for the future and a lot of people who jump on board are going to get rich. I just ordered 50 copies for my undergraduate class. This should be REQUIRED reading for ALL college students and the public at large.



5. Friedman writes on world population, the increase of the global middle class, and the growing energy crisis. All of this has contributed to a world that is in desperate need of an energy solution. The thing I like about Friedman's approach is he's optimistic and he's practical. His major points are...
   
   -- The battle over green (energy) will define the first part of the 21st century, just like the battle over red (communism) defined the last half of the 20th century.
   -- Everyone needs to accept that oil will never again be cheap...
   -- Off-shore drilling may be a temporary fix, but it's not the long-term solution.
   -- The fossil-fuel age will end only when we invent our way out of it...
   -- The last big innovation in energy production was nuclear power half a century ago, which is an important component to solving our energy problem, but we need additional solutions...
   -- In order to further real innovation we need people "throwing crazy dollars at every idea, in every garage, that we have 100,000 people trying 100,000 things, five of which might work, and two might be the next green Google."
   -- Friedman emphasizes the practical side of green - "It's the incredible sense of opportunity here. It's not just about saving the polar bears. It's not just about saving three generations from climate change. It's also about rising to the greatest economic opportunity that's come along in a long, long, time."
   
   In the end, he is asking for collaboration and innovation. Of course that begs the question - where does the money come from for all of this? It's always easy to point at the government, but when we look at where real economic solutions have come from it's most often private industry. I wish Friedman would have written on how governments can create environments were private industry is incentivized to create, invent, and discover. Even so, Friedman's book is a needed wake-up call.