5 comments about The Great Betrayal: How American Sovereignty and Social Justice Are Being Sacrificed to...

1. The heart of the subject matter in this book is nationalism vs. free trade/globalism.
   
   Pat Buchanan's view on free trade is interesting considering that he himself formerly held a pro-free trade opinion.
   He communicates why he opposes free trade very well in this book.
   
   Mr. Bucahanan's detailing of the political battles over free trade vs.protectionism was enlightening.It was interesting to read about where some of the former Presidents and other leaders stood on the topic.
   
   It would seem that it boils down to a question of revenue sources.
   Income tax or tariffs on imports? If history is an accurate indicator,tariffs have carried the load well before the personal income tax was implemented.
   
   Something to consider in economics or anything in general:nothing is free.It all costs you at some point.While there is nothing wrong with importing or exporting goods,there should be a level playing field or a cost to enter into the American marketplace.The cost shouldn't be a loss of textile jobs for American workers so that we can have cheap T-shirts.
   
   I think "The Great Betrayal" is a well-written,easy to read book that makes the author's points effectively.
   It's written in the same vein as Lou Dobbs' "War on the Middle Class", only about 6 years earlier.The Dobbs book is another very good book!



2. Disclaimer!!! This book may make it harder for you to sleep at night. Our current issues as a nation have a way of doing that.
   
   "Abandonment of the protective policy by the American Government must result in the increase of both useless labour, and idleness; and so, in pro(por)tion must produce want and ruin among our people."
   -Abraham Lincoln, 1847 (Mr. Buchanan quoted him in chapter 9 The Great Protectionist) Pat proves that our founding fathers were not advocates of free trade.
   
   What I found most enlightening about this book is that it strips away all the fancy language (jargon to confuse people), states facts, and comes to reasonable conclusions to solve these problems. The one world economy is a poison that rapes our country of it's wealth, and strips us of our common thread as a nation. Businesses now see everything through global means. Our wages are shrinking, our jobs are disappearing, and our wealth and national security hangs in the balance. Our trade deficits are suicidal, and our current political policy's are looking more and more socialist in nature. Mr. Buchanan draws your attention to these truths, and allows you to see our current situation in this country for what it really is. The opportunity to purge this disease from among us is rapidly closing (if it's not too late already). I don't agree with every premise Mr. Buchanan makes, but by and large he's right on the money.
   
   I read this book about 5 or 6 years ago, and it changed my perception of our future forever.



3. Of course bailing out of international trade would work. Unlike other countries, America has every resource known to man and America is able to tap those resources. A socalled "protectionist policy" or "isolationism" would only benefit America, not deter it. I know juwes don't like it, but, contrary to the words of Ben Gurion in Look magazine, America is not supposed to be the bell boy to Israel.



4. This book is great! However, it takes a long time to read. So, would somebody please get this on audio!!! (preferably Pat of course!)



5. Concerning matters of commerce, why are foreigners eating our lunch? Because too many of America's business and governmental leaders believe in a free lunch, writes Patrick J. Buchanan in this valuable volume.
   Buchanan's pungent pen lays the fault for the deindustrialization of our country at the door of the U.S. government. While heckling globalist-minded businesspeople for their avarice and lack of patriotism, Buchanan's over-arching theme of realism echoes Bernard Mandeville - Greed cannot be rooted out but it can be properly channeled and the U.S. government, through its tax and trade policies, has the power to accomplish this.
   The preamble of the Constitution as well as the actions of America's founders (especially George Washington and Alexander Hamilton) brim with what Buchanan calls "enlightened" economic nationalism. One hopes the author doesn't mean "enlightened" in the same way George W. Bush uses "compassionate" when putting it before "conservatism."
   While establishment politicians and professional talking heads may recoil in horror, students of language will note that tariffs are assumed natural because nature is uneven. The words "customs" and "duties" testify that international trade restrictions and taxes are long-standing and considered just as well as obligatory. Consider also "political economy." Political implies communal consideration, reflecting Aristotle's definition of politics as people deliberating how best to order our lives together. Thus economics is not solely a private matter, author Buchanan, America's leading spokesman of populist conservatism, reminds us.
   Republicans need to rediscover their protectionist heritage dating back to Henry Clay and Abraham Lincoln for the good of the republic as well their own electoral success, our author states. Connecting with Middle America through traditional morality while doing the economic bidding of transnational corporations leaves voters cold and frustrated. By embracing free trade, Democrats are selling out their union backers as well as lower-income supporters such as blacks, Buchanan writes.
   In reviewing Republican trade history Buchanan meets personal as well as societal ironies (most dissolve into non-ironies if you subscribe to the view that the GOP has always been a big-government party). A staunch free-trader while serving presidents Nixon and Reagan, Buchanan began to revise his views after leaving government. Annoying questioning of religious and national commitments of free-traders by our author prompts the question: Was Pat Buchanan less of a Christian when he was a free-trader? My answer: No. He just happened to be duped by a superficially appealing ideology. Is Bill Kristol less of a Jew for holding by neoconservatism? No. Kristol's brain happens to be in the grip of an ideology started by his father. Perhaps that makes Bill a loyal son and a lousy political scientist but it says little about his Judaism.
   Incomplete and speculative scholarship of this kind is the weakest part of "The Great Betrayal." Buchanan is unfair to Classical School economist David Ricardo. In relating Ricardo's theory/law of comparative advantage Buchanan misses the fact that Ricardo was striving for description, not prescription. Buchanan rightly criticizes Ricardo for discounting nationalism and one might say more attention could have been paid to the power of technology to narrow expense gaps but the main point is Ricardo was trying to do for economics what Isaac Newton did for physics. Later people like Richard Cobden and Karl Marx seized Ricardo's ideas for use in their revolutions but Ricardo himself was not articulating a party platform.
   Buchanan's shabby treatment of David Hume is particularly galling. Hume is incorrectly labeled "a militant atheist." In fact, the great Scotsman accepted the argument from design, saying there was nothing more obvious than the existence of G-d (see Blackstone Audio's "Giants of Philosophy" tape series for this and more). What apparently riles Buchanan is that Hume criticized institutionalized Christianity, saying it and other organized religions often provide "a cover for faction and ambition." Although we should classify Hume as a deist, his criticisms are squarely in the moral tradition of great Christian dissenters such as Soren Kierkegaard and Leo Tolstoy.
   The flogging of Hume points up conservatism's greatest ongoing dilemma - should we be loyal to principles or to institutions?
   Hume's "History of England" employed the same method as Buchanan's "Great Betrayal" - correcting the historical record and determining the implications for future practice. This is rich irony. Because of their judicious, non-partisan approaches both men are attacked by ideologues of the Right and Left.
   The European Union and empires in general receive hot and cold treatment from Buchanan. Loss of national identity is clearly on the author's mind yet he adds that smaller nations such as Austria will likely never be self-sufficient again.
   A vital connection is made when Buchanan points out that empire began to erode protectionism and constitutional government. The smoldering sparked by the Spanish-American War amid rock-ribbed protectionism by William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt eventually went ablaze with Dwight Eisenhower offering U.S. markets as low-hanging fruit to foreign countries in exchange for sticking with the West in the Cold War. Buchanan argues persuasively that such bribery was unnecessary.
   Crescendo is reached when Buchanan reminds us that economics is a means to an end. "What is wrong with the global economy is what is wrong with our politics; It is rooted in the myth of economic man." (p. 287). Along the way he opens eyes and hearts by chronicling the debasement of America's manufacturing base (providing the prose companion to Billy Joel's song "Allentown."). Ferreting out the hidden costs of free trade is another enormous contribution.
   Buchanan's endorsement of industrialism and strong, central government is sure to give some conservatives pause. The godfather of U.S. conservatism, Russell Kirk, wrote that industrialism has done more to undermine conservatism than any other single phenomenon. Henry Ford's assembly line techniques promoted the idea that one thing is just as good as another (where as the natural conservatism of men's minds is attuned to differences and gradations). Yet that same Ford that Kirk criticized is quoted by Buchanan as an upholder of family values - "The man does the work in the shop, but his wife does the work in the home. The shop must pay them both." (p. 93).
   Biblical passages (the Tower of Babel, the rivalry of Jacob and Esau) can be seen as lending support to Buchanan's view that nations don't have soft lips but sharp elbows. He shepherds us to the realism of Friedrich List - between the individual and the mass of humanity stands the nation (p. 196). List also rightly pointed out that nations are in different stages of development. All well and good? Not really. But unquestionably real.
   It's interesting that Buchanan only sees free trade and globalism as contrary to Christianity, not a logical extension of it. The passages of Galatians 3:28 and Romans 10:12 that begin "There is neither Jew nor Greek..." is as anti-nationalist a sentiment as I've ever read. Is Buchanan believing what he wants to believe? Perhaps. Closer to the truth is the reality that like the patriotism Buchanan clumsily attempts to gauge, religion is greatly a matter of interpretation and emphasis. Thus there can be as many patriotisms and religions as there are people that fancy themselves patriotic and religious.
   While Buchanan's nationalist realism is sobering and necessary I found myself a bit disappointed when this great "conservative of the heart" couldn't make room in his [...] for the anti-statist dreams of Ludwig von Mises. Mises served up a vision of the future in which classical liberalism supplants statism. To the Austrian School version of John Lennon's "Imagine," Buchanan registers disgust (p. 201). Yet to limit our thoughts and discourse to the temporal and contemporary breeds a spiritual wretchedness akin to what Kierkegaard describes in "The Sickness Unto Death." A stand-up Roman Catholic like Buchanan should know this. Perhaps he does but chooses to practice separation of church and state (ha!).
   What Buchanan is best at is bringing forward the gross abuses of American workers, families, and communities by generations of swine (to borrow a term from Buchanan friend Hunter S. Thompson) in Washington, D.C., and corporate boardrooms. The lid nearly blew off this pot of foul stew in 1992 when Buchanan, Jerry Brown, and Ross Perot challenged the corporate subsidiary that is America's political establishment. Social steam could be seen at work again in the battles over NAFTA and GATT. Now the economic collapse and bank bailout of 2008 coincide with the 10th anniversary of the publication of "The Great Betrayal," offering an opportunity to return economic nationalism/sanity to the front burner. All should pray for that success. The job saved may be your own.

5 comments about Profit Building: Cutting Costs Without Cutting People.

1. Perry Ludy's book, Profit Building examines a powerful dichotomy for business in the new millennium. It empowers commerce to make effective choices to achieve profit building by cutting costs without cutting people.

   Profit Building is also an imperative to examine conventional business models during periods of economic uncertainity. This book is precise, concise and truly on the cutting edge of contemporary issues in today's economy.

   Profit Building is a must read for savvy business management - or those who expect to join the ranks - to "get ahead of the curve" or virtually reinvent the human possibilities.

   Reviewed by former Group Publisher CBS.




2. As one CEO said to me recently, "No one who has a conscience ever wants to lay anyone off." Yet the headlines are filled with announcements that companies are making massive cuts in jobs and employees. Recently, these cuts are even coming in the fastest growing technology industries. If people don't like to fire anyone and people don't like to be fired, why is this happening?

   Mr. Ludy argues that faced with missing budgets, the orders come down to spend less. Most people do know how to fire someone, so that option gets plenty of attention. Most people do not know many other ways to cut costs or boost profits in the short term, so the alternatives get little attention.

   Our firm did a study more than a decade ago that has been quoted in dozens of books and magazine articles. We found that the stocks of companies which did layoffs usually underperformed the stocks of companies that did not. By the end of four years, the differences were enormous in favor of those who did not do layoffs.

   Many people believe that this is because people do layoffs poorly, and many people do. But it also because the effort that goes into the layoffs could be better deployed in activities that increase profits. Usually, the bulk of those who go are the most employable people. They end up working for the competition, or having to be hired back as expensive consultants. How does either alternative help, while you are paying severance benefits as an additional cost?

   Mr. Ludy points out, based on his extensive experience, that most executives, managers, and supervisors know little about profit improving.

   Much of the recent training in companies has been on how to reduce errors, and that may help cut costs in main processes. That learning is often of little help in secondary processes and in areas where the processes need to be totally replaced, revised, or outsourced. Xerox and Motorola are both famed for their quality processes, and both companies are struggling now to make a profit.

   Mr. Ludy has developed a process described in the book that helps to get people focusing on the best opportunities, and following through to implement the opportunites that they select. He also provides lists of items which many companies ignore, to help get the process started.

   Although I have not seen this process working in practice, it is similar enough to elements of successful processes I have seen that is has credibility to me.

   If you decide to pursue this process, I suggest that you can improve upon it. First, rather than just having one small team working on this, you should try to get as many people working in small teams as possible. The most successful profit-improvement program I ever saw involved over 14,000 people in suggesting ideas. Second, be sure to compare the performance you are achieving in one part of the company with what you are achieving in another part of the company in the same activity. Most large companies get their best ideas from benchmarking to their own best practices. Third, be sure to create an e-intelligence capability to get more information to everyone about how the company is performing. E-Business Intelligence is a book that can help you understand this point better.

   The three strengths of Mr. Ludy's process to me are:

   1. The emphasis on finding ways to improve profits, without hurting people.

   2. Training people about how to improve profits.

   3. Eliciting questions to locate opportunities.

   In regard to the second point, you may find it helpful to read Dr. Ram Charan's new book as well, What the CEO Wants You to Know. That book focuses on simple business concepts and metaphors to make everyone better able to relate to the issues of the enterprise.

   One of the major weaknesses of companies is that leaders are often asked to pursue tasks for which they do not have relevant information, experience, or training. Where else does your company have this issue? In my experience, two areas stand out.

   (1) Finding better solutions to repetitive problems.

   (2) Choosing directions that will lead to better results, regardless of business conditions.

   May you find more intelligent, and more humane, ways to profit!




3. Perry J. Ludy, a seasoned executive, presents his strategies for building profits and cutting costs in this well conceived book. He provides a team-based, profit-making plan that companies of any size could implement. In this simple, highly effective book, Ludy dispels myths about cutting costs and building profits. He uses examples from his professional experience to show his suggestions in action. We [...] recommend this book to managers and executives who are responsible for cost cutting and profit building.



4. If you are looking for a way to increase profits in your organization, I strongly recommend that you start by first reading Profit Building - Cutting Costs Without Cutting People. Mr. Ludy takes you step by step though the process of building an on-going profit build team for your organization. We have used it as a blueprint for our company and it has really turned our employees. The book moves fast and I found it to be an easy read.



5. 
   It is axiomic that the role of the firm is to maximise profit; some would say to maximise shareholder value. Profit can be increased by selling goods and services at a premium price that the customer is prepared to pay. However, in a highly competitive environment, prices can be depressed and the company may have to focus on cutting costs whilst maintaining an acceptable level of service and quality.
   
   With the various economic shocks that the world is subjected, one typical and favourite target for cost cutting is reducing the workforce. This short-sighted approach to cost cutting not only causes a lot of human suffering but seldom achieves the intended objective of reducing costs in the long-run. Perry Judy proposes a more progressive approach that focuses on profit improvement. The Profit-Building Process that the author proposes appears to be an effective and workable method for building profit without employing the short-sighted and often self-defeating cost-cutting through cutting people.
   
   I work in the airline industry where people cutting is a favourite strategy employed during lean times. Very often, following the drastic reduction in manning levels, service levels are reduced to such an extent that customers are turned away, further worsening the plight of the airlines concerned. The step-by-step approach of building on-going profit through motivated teams appears to be an excellent strategy for companies to employ when cost-cutting is required.
   
   The book is required reading for all managers tasked with the responsibility to cut costs and build profits in any department.

No comments about The End Of Capitalism (As We Knew It): A Feminist Critique of Political Economy.

No comments about Planning Local Economic Development: Theory and Practice.

No comments about Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life: A Philosophical Inquiry.

5 comments about Geopolitics: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions).

1. Since the advent of the Knowledge Society and Cyberspace some analysts have made rash claims about "the death of distance" and the irrelevance of territory. Finally however a new metaphor has surfaced which both recognizes the new and respects the old: "the continent with the fastest growing population is, in fact, a new one - the Internet." It is still only from geographically circumscribed territories that food and fibre are grown, and resources are mined or harvested. And the networks that move people, information, commodities and money around the world transverse territories - that is what makes them networks!
   
   As Prof. Dodds recalls for us, the concept of geopolitics rose to prominence during the early 20th century, only to subsequently fall into disrepute and disuse after Nazi machinations were attributed to "geopolitical strategizing." This was guilt by association, but the popular press and the public itself accepted this distortion. Only a half-century later is the true intellectual utility of geopolitical analysis finally being accepted again. Dodds has won recognition for his efforts to reformulate and restore geopolitics to intellectual respectability. In this short introduction he gives us the rationale for this way of thinking, and some of the insights produced with it.
   
   Now geopolitics has a more "critical" edge than when it was initially developed. It is no longer the servant of power politics, but rather an instrument to analyze and challenge the complacent view of the world that "great power politics" suggests. By looking at every message and every move of the politically and economically powerful, we can see how they are trying to define the issues in the global society in their own terms, so that they can mobilize support for their own efforts and resistance to the efforts of their opponents. With the geopolitical perspective it is now apparent that the machinations of ALL of the great power players are Machiavellian, no matter which side they are on, or which policies they pursue. What a relief to get beyond sanctimonious propaganda and see the motives and the methods for what they really are - multiple examples of the will to power. Prof. Dodds is to be thanked for helping to promote that clarity of vision.



2. I read this shortly after the Very Short Introduction to International Relation. The subject matters differ, but the style of the books vary even more so. Dodds takes a less staid approach.
   
   Thus, in addition to the expected intellectual history of geopolitics, Dodds has a chapters on maps and on popular culture (movies, the internet). I haven't been in college for a while, but this strikes me as a contemporary academic approach: here's a paragraph about geopolitics and gender, there's a discussion of the movie Behind Enemy Lines, here's a chart with a box labeled "spatialization [sic] of boundaries and dangers."
   
   Dodds will come across as a lefty by US standards. He's critical of the American approach to politics, he criticizes Hollywood for carrying the water of conservative government institutions, he's excited about the Zapatistas use of the internet, and he criticizes Bernard Lewis.



3. I read sections of this book to see if it was worth reading further, but my conclusion was "no." The tone is lively. However, the author is not to the point and doesn't give straight answers.
   
   For example, I wanted to know how he defined "geopolitics" for the purpose of this book. He asked a rhetorical question, "But what exactly is geopolitics?" His answer was a rambling about Google, some pundits, and his opinion that the definition is "slippery." This was unsatisfactory. He later talks about how geopolitics works, how politicians legitimate geopolitical policy with phrases ("axis of evil"), but what good is this information without some practical definition of the key concept?
   
   In later chapters, he has interesting stories but he also has unhelpful titles for subsections. For example, "Geopolitics of national sovereignty and the international system". Why not just say "national sovereignty and the international system"?
   
   The material is interesting, and it is obvious that this author has a lot of things to say. Unfortunately, it lacks coherence and conciseness that are necessary for a lay person to grasp the take-home messages. I think the author didn't spend enough time editing his own work. If I were the editor, I would be happy to sift through the lively stories in spite of the careless choices of inexact words. Since I am not the editor, however, I will wait for the second edition.



4. Dobbs clearly knows his stuff, but this book raises more questions than it answers and drifts off into a general critique of globalization. Dobbs explains how the Nazis appropriated geopolitical analysis, and how that discredited the concept for decades. He is also interesting when describing the shift to polar projection during the "air age." He correctly notes that geopolitical thinking is not just something that military strategists do, but is part of popular culture. But he spends a lot of the book taking shots at America (a whole paragraph on the Wag the Dog movie, a bit of an indulgence for a Very Short Introduction). There is a chapter on the British and German origins of geopolitics, and sections on Argentina and the Falklands and Al Jazeera, but the rest of the book is devoted to a critique of the American worldview. Dodds can't seem to decide between the modernists and the post-modernists: is geopolitics a real strategy for power projection or is just a series of sound-bites to fool the public (such as "axis of evil"). Strangely for a book on geopolitics, there is not much direct engagement with geography and cartography. No discussion of the Peters Projection for example. There are only five maps - but 22 other illustrations including a still from a James Bond film. He talks about the importance of Isaiah Bowman's maps in 1919, but does not show any of them. There is a glaring error in the map on p. 128 showing Europe in 1914 - central Poland (the duchy of Warsaw) is shown as part of the German empire, which was not the case.



5. The author clearly knows his subject and provides plenty of interesting details on geopolitical history and the current geopolitical situation, but this book lacks a systematic introductory overview of the topic, which is what one would expect from the subtitle "a very short introduction." In other words, the author has provided an entertaining guided tour of the trees, but has seemingly altogether forgotten to give an overall sense of the forest. (By the way, this seems to be a growing problem with the VSI series in general. The publisher and editors appear to be asleep at the wheel, or maybe just in the mode of churning these little books out for a quick profit, now that the brand is established.)
   
   Readers already somewhat versed in geopolitics might find this book to be an easy and stimulating read, but I doubt that most other readers will gain much from the book.

2 comments about Real World Globalization: A Reader in Business, Economics and Politics, 9th Edition.

1. This book offers critical perspectives (without the conservative bias) on the rapidly changing globalized world. An important read for anyone interested in economics, political philosophy, political science, or global justice!



2. This is a great book for anyone looking for concise, understandable literature on the economic and social issues surrounding globalization. The book is organized into specialized sections that have 6-10 articles about various topics related to the section. It is a great source for both beginners and advanced students of globalization.

1 comments about Whats Wrong with Microfinance?.

1. I initially thought this book will have negative points of view on Microfinance. In other words, what has Microfinance done apart from creating more debts but on smaller scale? Which only goes to enchain more people with loans? However, I now think, the book was a necessary read for any Microfinance enthusiast, its an eye opener, which will no doubt help Microfinance practitioners consider more factors before shouting "Hey lets do Microfinance" or when considering Microfinance as a solution to world poverty, it may be one good way for supporting small businesses, but not the solution to world poverty.
   
   The book is a good and enjoyable read and very very informative.

3 comments about Post Carbon Cities: Planning for Energy and Climate Uncertainty.

1. This is the only publication I know of that offers a comprehensive and professional overview (without the emotion of impending catastrophe) of the twin challenges of global warming and peak oil, written specifically to officials in municipalities, although any business leader would also benefit from its content. The book explains the issues, the implications, and provides guidelines for getting started on meaningful solutions to these challenges.
   
   Daniel is an impressive and most credible speaker and author. I think the book is excellent. It's well centered, reasonable and the author clearly understands local government.
   
   It is a quick read, easy to understand, offers clear guidance, and I strongly recommend it as a fundamental resource. Every Municipality should have this book on their staff "To Read" list.
   
   If Municipalities aren't vigorously planning for these two challenges already (global warming and peak oil) they are already behind the curve, with potentially disastrous consequences.



2. I work for the State of Minnesota on its sustainable community development team and we have found Daniel's book invaluable for the cities with whom we work. Over 100 copies have been requested by cities in Minnesota, and I've just ordered another 100 to share with cities, which are asking for help in navigating the beginning of an energy transition period driven by climate change and peak oil.
   This book is unique and essential reading for mayors, city council members, planning commissions, environmental commissions, and members of citizen boards.



3. I skimmed it and threw it aside. No new ideas. Practically nothing here that has not been featured on multiple internet sites.
   
   I was hoping for something hands-on that we could use as a guide to jump-start our self-satisfied, affluent, kid-centric, still-in-denial 20,000 suburban population into some preparations for the down side of Peak Oil.
   
   This is not it.
   
   Vote for Obama and join the Pickens Plan.

1 comments about Privatizing China: Socialism from Afar.

1. Privatizing China discussed a very timely topic about the development of new form of society in China. Specifically, it is about a new social, that was badly understood by some western writings. The authors, within their specific encounters with Chinese culture, articulated the process of creating new private spaces for each individuals and institutions. From new apartments, to internet cafes, professionals, land owners, restaurants, and religious forums, we saw the effects of this new found `freedom' on China and how it is evolving.
   
   As the whole society gravitates towards new forms of expression and differentiation between people, successful people built new spheres of power that at times conflicted with national interests. Hexie shequ, or harmonious communities, that Hu Jintao proposed, acted as a counter-balance between the state interests and need for zhengqi fenkai (separation of politics and businesses). The formation of yeweihui, for instance, was a case of individuals, within their personal sphere of influence, experimentally coming together to pursuit a common interest. In China, all these were part of the great experiment. Within each context, we can see the cultured forms of negotiation at dining tables and with the use of guanxi, and how these dances around formal rules otherwise so rigid in western settings. Not to forget that all these changes were built on the foundation of the old socialist. While western ethos such as privatization can give China a headstart, we can see evidence from the book of a new emerging social.
   
   Overall, recommended reading for all who are interested more in depth, and at the same time, wide ranging perspectives on the social dynamics of Chinese economic development.