1 comments about Confronting Iraq: U.S. Policy and the Use of Force Since the Gulf War.

1. I thought this book had a great history of the events from the end of the first Gulf War to start of 2001. The author's detail out each major event and UN resolution and what the Iraq and US did or did not do as a result. It was interesting that many times, basically every time, there was a new resolution Iraq ended up first playing games and then backing down. It almost seamed to be the behavior of a spoiled brat. It was also very interesting where the authors can show that Iraq got close to having the UN stop the sanctions, but each time Saddam would do something dumb and the world would demand that the sanctions be put back in place. What also comes through is the very difficult if almost impossible position the UN is in trying to enforce resolutions when the only power they have is rented / given to them by other countries. What this has created is a situation that only resolutions heavily supported by the US get the US military backing thus have the teeth to be effective.

   The one downside of the book was the chapter long discussion on what coercion meant the definition and how the word should correctly be used. Nice info for a high school reader but it just slowed the book down for the rest of us. Overall I liked the book, it was a bit dry and could have been a bit more detailed, but it was a nice review of the past ten years. The real value is putting some facts behind what has been so talked about over the past year and what was the Iraqi position as it related to the UN resolutions. If you have been interested in this situation over the past year then you will probably enjoy this book.

3 comments about Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation.

1. Hunger and poverty are not regional or national issues any more. This book literally changed the way people thought about famines and hunger, according to Robert Solow. Human beings are deprived of food in many ways. Sen points out that food availability dedcline is only one possible cause of occurrence of a famine. Famines can occur even if the food output is sufficient in a region, for example in a situation when certain groups of people become richer and purchase more food leading to a steep rise in the prices, while the poor find the food increasingly unaffordable. Sen conceptualizes these issues in the framework of entitlement and ownership. Obviously, a person gets starved when his 'exchange entitlement set' is a null set, i.e., he owns nothing worth exchanging for bundles of food. A famine occurs when a large number of people in a country or a region suffer from such entitlement failures at a same time. In the second chapter, Sen discusses two alternative methods to measure poverty - the Income method and the Direct method. Both methods essentially represent two alternative conceptions of poverty analysis. The inequality approach to poverty is also found to be very common.

   Can poverty analysis be put into a policy framework? Sen answers this question in the negative pointing out its difficulties. Sen says that a policy definition is based on a fundamental confusion. But at the same time, Sen fails to answer the question of how then the problem can be solved. Famine Enquiry Commission of 1945 had argued that the famine was due to cyclones, floods, fungus diseases, loss of Burma rice, etc., etc. The essence of these theses was that the famine was mainly an outcome of a food shortage. Sen in his analysis of the famine contests this. Point by point, with the use of statistics on food production and other parameters, he states that although there was a decline in food output in Bengal in 1943, it cannot be accepted as a prime cause as there was a still higher decline in food output during 1941 which did not cause any famine. The per capita food availability in 1943 was also higher than that in 1941. The major cause of the famine was the inability of the British government to forecast the shortfall in food. Sen uses his own 'entitlement theory' to describe the famine. The major cause of the famine was shrinkage of the E-mappings for individuals resulting from spiraling food prices and the prevailing inequalities among the population. The situation was not different in the case of the Ethiopian famine of 1972-74. There also there was not any evidence of a major shortfall in the food output; in fact Sen argues that there was indeed a slight increase in the food output vis-à-vis the preceding years during the famine years. The overall consumption of food at the peak famine period was actually normal. But the purchasing power of the people was low resulting in inability to command food from outside. As in the Bengal famine, the highest casualities were among the agricultural workers. But in contrast with Bengal famine, the food prices rose only very little in Ethiopia and were not very different from those prevailing during the pre-drought periods. Sen explains this phenomenon by understanding it in terms of the entitlement failures of various sections of the Ethiopian population.

   The next case study is that of Sahel famine in Africa during 1968-73. This resulted in the decline of food availability that eventually led to the famine. An analysis of region wise food output revealed that in the regions where the output was low, the effect of the famine was actually lower comparatively. Firstly, it makes the farmer more dependent on the market forces for his basic food requirements. When one has an ability to command food in the market legally, then market approach may work.

   Sen's major argument in the whole book is that against the popular feeling that famines are caused only due to the decline in availability of food (the FAD approach). He puts in a number of arguments against it citing specific case studies of the above famines. Arnold (1988) pointed out that there were a number of famines in history which were actually caused by food output decline and thus to project entitlement as the major cause of famines was incorrect. Patnaik says that the entitlement approach, while rejecting the FAD theory, takes an unduly short run view of food availability. While agreeing that during famine periods food availability is a major issue, she argues that the long term trend in per capita food availability is also of utmost importance, which Sen does not consider in his entitlement approach. These trends could set the stage for famines even though famines do not thereby become inevitable. There are arguments following Devereux's words that one can not discuss famines without constantly taking into account the aggregate supply of food (Bowbrick, 1986). There are some other major authors also who have come out against the entitlement approach of Sen for that there is nothing 'new' in Sen's approach (Srinivasan, 1983; Mitra, 1982).

   Poverty and Famines have remained to haunt the dreams of many underdeveloped countries. The issues, as the book, still live on. As Castro lamented at Rome - "The bells that are presently tolling for those starving to death everyday will tomorrow be tolling for all mankind if it did not want, or did not know, or if it could not be sufficiently wise, to save itself".

   References

   Arnold, D., (1988) Famine: Social Crisis and Historical Change, Basil Blackwell, Oxford. Bowbrick, P., (1986) "The Causes of Famines: A Refutation of Prof. Sen's Theory", Food Policy, 11. Mitra, Asok., (1982) "The Meaning of Meaning", Economic and Political Weekly (Reviews), 27 March. Patnaik, Utsa., (1991) "Food Availability Decline and Famines-A Longer View", Journal of Peasant Studies,19. Srinivasan, T.N., (1983) "Review of Sen", American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 65.




2. Poverty and Famines: An essay on Entitlement and Deprivation

   The Nobel Laureate (1998) Amartya Sen needs no introduction. But poverty and starvation are better known than he is. Better still, the author is in full realisation of this fact. So, no self-elevating adjectives or poignant criticism can be found in the book. The book focuses on starvation in general and famines in particular. At the very outset, Amartya comes out to be a Keynesian in approach rather than a classicist. As his critics would put it - "This paper is not concerned with long-term food policy". This is true to some extent but the author here is trying to fit in a jigsaw puzzle with two or more puzzles thrown in at once. The book can be further divided into three parts for reading purposes: * For layman [Chapter 1-5,10] * Case Studies [Chapter 6-9] * For the erudite economist [Appendix A-D] This is what sets the book apart - a simple treatment of such a complex subject! For an issue as basic as hunger, you do require a simple treatment that masses can understand and not only a Master at some reputed economic school. The first and second section can be read by anyone slightly concerned with the word - Poverty while appendices are for the more learned. Chapter I introduces the elementary concepts of his approach to starvation - "The Entitlement Approach". He clearly distinguishes between the food availability and the relationships between a person and the food available. According to him, a person can get food to which he is legally or socially entitled. He can exchange his owned entitlements for other entitlements. Thus, even if plenty is available in author's words - "Starvation is seen as the result of his inability to establish entitlement to enough food". The second and the third chapter deal with concept of poverty, its identification and aggregation. He presents various methods of poverty evaluation and a critique of each- 1. The most usual head count method (i.e. relative number of poor) 2. Biological and nutritional approach (i.e. minimum amount of nutrition required). The aggregation is dealt with by advocating the axiom of "Ranked Relative Deprivation". This deals with the relative poverty amongst the 'poor'. Chapter III brings out the difference between starvation and famines. It sets a stage for discussion of famines in particular. He distinguishes both on - 1. Time Contrast (Long term and Short Term) 2. Group Contrast (Endemic and Specific Community) Chapter IV critically examines the entitlement approach with explanations of endowment and exchange. He examines the limitations of entitlement approach. The author seems to be very much aware of this e.g. '....some transfers that include violation of entitlement approach as looting'. The Case Studies cover the- * Bengal Famine of 1943 * Ethiopian famine of 1972-4 * Sahel Drought and Famine of 1968-73 * Famine of Bangladesh in 1974. The case studies chosen are of widely different nature and lend credit to his work. He goes about justifying the entitlement approach both in times of low food availability and adequate food availability. The Bengal famine case has been taken to illustrate the failure of FAD (Food Availability Decline). From the data of Famine Inquiry Commission of 1945, he proves that actually per capita availability rose about 9% form 1941-43. Since rural workers were as a community affected the most, exchange entitlement could have been a reason. The 'class-basis of destitution' further corroborates the food entitlement approach. The causes of sharp movements of exchange entitlements in this case can be briefed as- 1. Printing of currency leading to inflationary pressures 2. Speculation and Hoarding (A typical Keynesian!) 3. 'Indifferent' winter crop 4. Prohibition of cereal export 5. An uneven expansion of income and purchasing power 6. Impoverishment of groups not directly related to food production He further examines the bad policy of Bengal govt. at that time. The policy was largely FAD approach based and believed in merely creating supplies of food in the affected region, which, obviously, did not help much. The critics have strongly challenged the validity of Famine Commission report (Sen too is aware of that) and actually contend that crop availability was less than that reported (a large upward bias). This hits at the root of his analysis as he works on the initial analysis that there was actually a rise in food available. Also, the critics lay claim to inefficiency of PDS used to funnel the food into Bengal. To quote-"...and what was put on the market vanished without a ripple". They further proved that the inflation was pretty much the same throughout India. So why this should have only hit Bengal. Sen has neglected the infrastructural breakdown. The Ethiopian Famine, again, according to him proved the validity of entitlement approach, as there was little price rise of commodities. But in Sahel famine decrease in food availability was the causal factor. Sen analysed region wise food output to declare that the effect of famine was actually lower in food deprived areas. The approach of Sen seems to be of a short-term nature but does, indeed, subtly propose a long-term vision too. The focus of govt. should not only be to concentrate on food availability but as Sen points out towards ensuring no sudden changes in exchange entitlements. He advocates govt. intervention in these situations (Keynesian approach!). The critics who oppose the above may please note that that at no time does he propose to completely eliminate the FAD approach. Rather, in opening lines of Chapter I he says- "Starvation is characteristic of some people not having enough to eat. It is not the characteristic of there being not enough to eat. While the latter can be a cause of the former, it is but one of many possible causes". In conclusion, the book is a must read for everyone. This is a simply written book with lots of conviction and healthy refute of the theories he disposes of.




3. A very persuasive acount of the famine problem is displayed by Nobel Laureate Dr. Sen. Contrary to all expectations, is a very readable book, because all the formulas and elaborate economic theories are confined to the appendix section.

   Before the appendix, Dr. Sen displays the famine cycle in many parts of the world during this century and highligth the Bengala famine during World War II. Also, he explains the causes and effects of the famine cycle on each case presented.

   So, if you want to know how a famine is "made" and "administrated" this is the book you must have.

4 comments about War and Taxes.

1. Joe Thorndike is a genius. This is the best book on war and taxes yet! Bravo.



2. There are so many books that dissect how and why we fight wars, but this is the only book I have found that analyzes the other half of war: how we pay for it. This is not an academic issue, because ordinary citizens can change the course of a war by deciding to pay for it or to not pay for it. War and Taxes provides a fascinating history of how our country has paid for its wars, and it disproves the myth I was taught in high school that wars must lead to higher taxes. This is the first time that a book on taxes has made my summer reading list, but this book is very timely and eye-opening.



3. While acknowledging the Bush tax cuts marked an "abrupt departure" from our tradition of wartime fiscal sacrifice, the authors of War and Taxes demonstrate that such sacrifice hasn't always been all that willing. (Typically, business interests have patriotically chest-thumped while acting sub rosa to minimize any tax effect.) Now often, the Civil War serves to open our tax history, with the establishment of the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the imposition of a recognizable income tax, but the authors appropriately focus on the War of 1812 in pushing the nation toward increased reliance on internal taxation, as opposed to tariffs and loans, thereby placing war finance on a sound footing. The contrasting fiscal strategies of the Union and Confederacy are clearly laid out. Further, the recurring relationship between conscription and taxes is well introduced in the Civil War chapter. (One frequent populist refrain: Draft wealth, not just boys of 18.) The authors deserve particular credit for sorting through the various iterations of the excess profits tax proposals in both world wars, as well as for highlighting the tax forgiveness feature of the Current Tax Payment Act of 1943, which was effectively a wartime tax cut. Naturally, we learn the critical impact of World War II in laying the foundation for our current tax system, especially withholding, but also how close we came to a national sales tax. Hardly a dry text, the Vietnam chapter, for example, is almost sad to read as Lyndon Johnson's presidency unravels from a tax/budgetary perspective. War and Taxes is an important contribution to this field of study and one that succeeds in ably interweaving decisive historical events (e.g., the New York Draft Riot, unrestricted submarine warfare in 1915-17, Chinese entry into the Korean War) with the contemporary legislative atmosphere and the pertinent technical tax issues.



4. The authors of this thoughtful work begin with the proposition that there is no precedent for the expenditure of blood and treasure for the last six years of warfare in the Middle East while cutting taxes at the same time. Then, by going all the way back to the War of 1812, they candidly demonstrate that Americans have not always been especially willing to pay higher taxes to finance the nation's wars. Only with the two World Wars and the Korean War were most Americans readily prepared to make the financial sacrifices required to pay for these major wars. Implicit, but not as explicit as it might have been, is the conclusion that citizens are more easily persuaded to pay for wars involving national survival than limited wars with more ambiguous aims.
   
   One of the authors' central themes is explaining how the income tax assumed a role of primacy among the various other forms of revenue raising. They note how during the Civil War a perception arose that the income tax was the fairest means of financing that war in response to complaints the rich were exempt from sacrifice. Even after the income tax was legitimized by the Sixteenth Amendment just before the United States entered World War I, it remained a tax imposed on upper income citizens until World War II. This book includes a good description of FDR's successful resistance to a national sales tax to pay the skyrocketing costs of that war in favor of a broader use of the income tax. The authors also provide excellent background on how withholding and the standard deduction first appeared at this time.
   
   In the interest of a balanced view, there appears to be an error on page 95. The percentages of the income tax as a share of total revenue match exactly the dollar figures in the next sentence. After half an hour of attempting to trace the vaguely cited source in the footnote, I abandoned the effort. On page 109, the fine quotation should be attributed to Speaker, not Senator, Sam Rayburn. Then there's the cover art. This is a book about American wars and American taxes. The WWII vintage tank appears to be a Sherman, but the ship silhouette is unquestionably one on the Royal Navy's King George V class, and the plane looks like an RAF Mosquito.
   
   These minor flaws should not deter anyone from reading this book. The information is generally quite sound and the analysis is very informative. The time spent reading it will be rewarding.

3 comments about Providing Global Public Goods: Managing Globalization.

1. This books is an excellent follow-up of the Global Public Goods: International Cooperation in the 21st Century. It helped me visual and understand the provisionary measures needed to bring about GPGs.



2. Global Public Goods and Multilateralism must intertwine in order for progress and provision to come about. This is an idea that is so often neglected and forgotten. This book places an importance role that nations must carry out...it also provides recommendations for issues that arise in the midst of GPG provision. This book does not negate the global issues that exist within and surrounding the international realm...yet the book does a fabulous job on highlighting the importance of addressing these issues as a means of furthering the progress of Global Public Goods.



3. I think that this book closes the knowledge gap surrounding this topic. It is one thing to theorize about the benefits or negative impacts of global public goods (or bads) and another to suggest ways to go about dealing with GPG. This book is extremely enlightening and presents realistic solutions!

1 comments about Chile's Free Market Miracle: A Second Look.

1. This book contains an analysis of the economic and social effects of the Pinochet dictatorship by John Lear and Joseph Collins around 1990 and an epilogue by Stephanie Ronsenfeld from around 1994.

   The authors show the effects of deregulation on all aspects of Chilean life. The public health system--which seventy percent of Chileans as of 1990 belonged to--has been rapidly defunded , farmed out to municipalities. Relatively few Chileans can afford the relatively new HMO-type companies whose primary focus is accomodating people who can pay the most i.e. the well-off. Thyphoid fever and Hepatitis rapidly expanded to epidemic proportions from the mid-70's until a decaded later--short term profit, absent government restraint, makes dumping industrial waste and chemicals into rivers into the water supply a reasonable cost-effective mean as does neglecting to ensure adequate sanitation standards in the food you sell. The government finally enacted some regulations in the mid-80's to try to roll back the epidemics. The authors point out the declining infant mortality rate, which neoliberal advocates point to with pride is, apart from the expanding birth rate in the upper classes, in large part due to "socialistic" government programs targeting new mothers and infants. The health of the infants and mothers after they conclude the program is, of course, another story. The authors show that Chile's privitization and municipilization of education has grossly skewed the benefits towards wealthy municipalities able to generate the resources and high-income students to be "self-financing."

   They show that the privitized social security accounts are of scant benefit for a large number of Chileans who cannot generate enough income to meet their stringent minimum requirements. This great mass of people inevitably have to fall back on the scant package offered by the government which, combined with required government payments to those who retired before the early 80's when privitization was implemented, promises to bring severe fiscal probolems for Chile in the next few decades. They show that wages have stagnated or declined relative to pre-1973 levels--per capita income did not return to its 1970 level until 1989. They show that the monumental economic crises in the early 80's which admirers of Pinochet's economic policies like to forget, was very much due to the extreme neoliberal policies of the junta. In the late 70's Chile's economy took off. Tarrifs were eliminated, restrictions on foreign investment lifted and the Peso was pegged at 39 to the dollar, considerably overvalued. The result was a flood of ultra-cheap imports, mostly luxury items and little productive inbestment. The banks, freed from regulation, recklessly loaned out. Then at the end of 1981 all of the suddent there was recession in the U.S. and thus restriction of its market, capital flight, corporations and banks under enormous debt went under and the economy was on the verge of collapse. Pinochet took over the bankrupt banks and corporations using the resources provided by Chile's immensely profitable government owned companies to get back into shape and then sold them to his friends and foreign corporations at grossly undervalued prices. During this process some unkind critics labeled it--"the Chicago road to socialism"--government ownership was as high as it ever was during Allende's term--after the proteges of University of Chicago free market gurus like Milton Friedman who took over Chile's economic policy after 1975. The immensely profitable public companies then followed into the private sector, again grossly low prices.

   The show that working conditions, wages and living conditions have largely gone down hill, helped enormously by Pinochet's extreme anti-labor policies. The rapid elimination of native forests and fisheries protends serious problems. Miss Rosenfeld points out that the democratic governments since 1990 have eliminated some of the harder edges of Pinochet's policies by increasing spending considerably for housing and other social services and increasing the minimum wage and have shown more success in narrow statistical indicators than he ever did. But the structure of his society is still more or less intact; Chile is still primarily an export-oriented economy, largely by exploiting non-renewable resources. Its over-reliance, for instance, of grape exports, the workers in whose industry are mostly temporary laboring under bad conditions and low wages, makes it very vulnerable to new competitors who are discovering more cheaper ways of production and can pay even lower wages. Government funding for research and development and funding of infrastructure before 1973 laid the basis for the industry's prosperity but since that time it has been eliminated.

   The book is a little bit dated and I didn't understand one or two points but it is a very important book and, for an economics book, lucidly written.

No comments about The Role of the State in Taiwan's Development (Taiwan in the Modern World).

5 comments about A Political Economy of the Middle East: Third Edition.

1. This authorative work was monumental when first released, and the second edition updates the first well, addressing many new contemporary developments. At times, the book can be daunting; however, for the material it covers, it is often suprisingly readable. It is great a launchpad for a multifarious number of other studies because it integrates and discusses so many other concerns. The charts, graphs, and tables which are employed generously are helpful as well. Overall, the book succeeds well at being balanced, practical and straightforward about the problems facing the Middle East, including their source and future.

   Recommended for students and professionals seeking specialized knowledge of the M. E. which presents a solid framework for seeing the interelatedness of many aspects of Mid. East society. Casual readers will be overwhelmed by it analytical style and attention to detail. A general knowledge of economics as well as politics is of course recommended before reading this as well.




2. I have read and used sevral books in my research on the Middle East. I find this book to be the best to gain a bird's eye view of many social, political and economic problems in the region. R & W discuss problems of nation - building, state types and formation, competing ideologies, socio-economic crisis and oil politics (among other things). It's an excellent place to start for serious approaches to the subject. I have read both editions and look forward to future books form these authors.

   I




3. This book starts to fill a gap sorely lacking on political economy in the Middle East. At times, it suffers from what most surveys of regions do - overlooking particular experiences of individual countries and other important factors determining important cause and effect relationships.

   Nevertheless, it provides a good starting point for the student of the Middle East and the general reader who has a curiosity concerning the lack of non-oil wealth in the Middle East.




4. This book starts to fill a gap sorely lacking on political economy in the Middle East. At times, it suffers from what most surveys of regions do - overlooking particular experiences of individual countries and other important factors determining important cause and effect relationships.

   Nevertheless, it provides a good starting point for the student of the Middle East and the general reader who has a curiosity concerning the lack of non-oil wealth in the Middle East.




5. From Table of Contents:
   1998
   
   
   I - Intro
   
   2 - The Framework of the Study
   * Economic Growth and Structural Transformation
   * State Structure and Development Policy
   * Social Actors
   * Structural Transformation and Interest Formation
   * Defensive Modernization and Colonial Transformation
   
   3 - Economic Growth and Structural Change
   * The Natural Resource Base
   * Oil Supply, Demand, and Economic Rents
   * Patterns of Economic Growth
   
   4 - The Impact of Rapid Population Growth
   * Comparative Demographic Patterns
   * The Economic Consequences of Rapid Population Growth
   * The Politics of Young Populations
   * The Politics of Differential Fertility
   * Rapid Population Growth and the Would-Be Middle Class
   
   5 - Human Capital: Health, Education, and Labor Markets
   * Health Issues
   * Educational Systems
   * Labor Markets
   
   6 - Water and Food Security
   * The Food Gap
   * Policy Impediments to Output Growth
   * Water and the Imperative of a New Food Security Strategy
   
   7 - The Emergence of the Public Sector
   * The State as Architect of Structural Transformation
   * Ataturk and the Turkish Paradigm
   * Replicating the Paradigm
   * State Capitalism, the State Bourgeoisie, and the Process of Accumulation
   
   8 - Contradiction of State-Led Growth
   * The Continued Dominance of Public-Sector Enterprise
   * The Political Economy of Structural Adjustment
   
   9 - The Checkered Course of Economic Reform
   * A Survey of Country Experiences
   
   10 - Urban Political Economy
   * The Process of Urbanization
   * Housing and Infrastructure
   * Income Distribution and Poverty
   * Urban Politics and Political Violence
   
   11 - Political Regimes: As They Are and As They View Themselves
   * Socialist Republics
   * Liberal Monarchies
   * Established and Would-Be Democracies
   * The Islamic Republics
   * Future Regimes: Some Speculation
   
   12 - Solidarism and its Enemies
   * Small Groups and Clientelist Politics
   * The Failure of Parties
   * The Tenets of Solidarism
   * The Failure of Ideology
   * The Islamic Challenge
   * Democracy without Democrats?
   
   13 - The Military and the State
   * The Military in Middle East Politics
   * Good Guys or Bad Guys?
   * The Economic Weight of the Military
   * The Military and Nation Building
   * The Regular Military and Civilians in Arms
   
   14 - Is Islam the Solution?
   * Islamists in Opposition
   * Islamists in Power
   
   15 - Regionalism, Labor Migration, and the Future of the Oil Economies
   * Labor Migration: An Overview
   * The Impact of Labor Migration on Sending Countries
   * Migration and Equity
   * The Impact of Migration on Receiving Countries
   * Conclusion, the Return of Surplus Labor

No comments about The Secret Chamber or the Public Square? What Can Be Done to Make Tax Analysis and Revenue Estimation More Transparent and Accurate.

1 comments about Priorities in Health: Disease Control Priorities Companion Volume.

1. The book, at $10, is surprisingly affordable. Perhaps the World Bank does not intend to make any profit off it, and is publishing it as an educational outreach.
   
   It gives a valuable summary of global progress in improving health. The incidence of diseases like tubercolosis, trachoma and malaria are cited and compared to earlier years. For many diseases, there are known interventions which are cost effective and affordable by developing countries. But even in developed nations, there are interventions which are not cost effective, relative to the health gain produced by them. This includes treatments for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. At least the point is moot for developing countries, which simply cannot afford such treatments anyway.
   
   One surprise, perhaps, is that TB is now again a danger. Largely defeated decades ago, it has made a comeback. Aggravated by countries with civil war, or HIV/AIDS.

No comments about Reaganomics: Rhetoric vs. Reality.