Wealth and Democracy: A Political History of the American Rich


Kevin Phillips - 2002
    His bestselling books, including The Emerging Republican Majority (1969) and The Politics of Rich and Poor (1990), have influenced presidential campaigns and changed the way America sees itself. Widely acknowledging Phillips as one of the nation's most perceptive thinkers, reviewers have called him a latter-day Nostradamus and our "modern Thomas Paine." Now, in the first major book of its kind since the 1930s, he turns his attention to the United States' history of great wealth and power, a sweeping cavalcade from the American Revolution to what he calls "the Second Gilded Age" at the turn of the twenty-first century.The Second Gilded Age has been staggering enough in its concentration of wealth to dwarf the original Gilded Age a hundred years earlier. However, the tech crash and then the horrible events of September 11, 2001, pointed out that great riches are as vulnerable as they have ever been. In Wealth and Democracy, Kevin Phillips charts the ongoing American saga of great wealth–how it has been accumulated, its shifting sources, and its ups and downs over more than two centuries. He explores how the rich and politically powerful have frequently worked together to create or perpetuate privilege, often at the expense of the national interest and usually at the expense of the middle and lower classes.With intriguing chapters on history and bold analysis of present-day America, Phillips illuminates the dangerous politics that go with excessive concentration of wealth. Profiling wealthy Americans–from Astor to Carnegie and Rockefeller to contemporary wealth holders–Phillips provides fascinating details about the peculiarly American ways of becoming and staying a multimillionaire. He exposes the subtle corruption spawned by a money culture and financial power, evident in economic philosophy, tax favoritism, and selective bailouts in the name of free enterprise, economic stimulus, and national security.Finally, Wealth and Democracy turns to the history of Britain and other leading world economic powers to examine the symptoms that signaled their declines–speculative finance, mounting international debt, record wealth, income polarization, and disgruntled politics–signs that we recognize in America at the start of the twenty-first century. In a time of national crisis, Phillips worries that the growing parallels suggest the tide may already be turning for us all.From the Hardcover edition.

The Indispensable Milton Friedman: Essays on Politics and Economics


Milton Friedman - 2012
    His writings and theories on everything from capitalism and freedom to deregulation and welfare have inspired movements, influenced government policies, and changed the course of America’s economic history.Now, acclaimed Friedman biographer Dr. Lanny Ebenstein brings together twenty of Friedman’s greatest essays in his new book, The Indispensable Milton Friedman: Essays on Politics and Economics. The only collection of Friedman’s writings to span his entire career, The Indispensable Milton Friedman: Essays on Politics and Economics features some of Friedman’s never-before-republished writings as well as the best and most timeless of his works.These exceptional essays not only illuminate the progression of Friedman’s thought, but explain how America might overcome some of its most difficult challenges. Broken into two sections, politics and economics, The Indispensable Milton Friedman shows how we can ultimately turn America around, and is more necessary than ever during this critical election year and time of economic uncertainty.

How to Build a Multi-Level Marketing Machine


Randy Gage - 1998
    Industry expert Randy Gage explains exactly how to build a large network marketing organization. Readers learn the specific, step-by-step strategies they need to create their own residual income, multi-level money machine. A complete nuts-and-bolts manual.

America at the Crossroads: Democracy, Power, and the Neoconservative Legacy


Francis Fukuyama - 2006
    Here he explains how, in its decision to invade Iraq, the Bush administration failed in its stewardship of American foreign policy. First, the administration wrongly made preventive war the central tenet of its foreign policy. In addition, it badly misjudged the global reaction to its exercise of “benevolent hegemony.” And finally, it failed to appreciate the difficulties involved in large-scale social engineering, grossly underestimating the difficulties involved in establishing a successful democratic government in Iraq.Fukuyama explores the contention by the Bush administration’s critics that it had a neoconservative agenda that dictated its foreign policy during the president’s first term.  Providing a fascinating history of the varied strands of neoconservative thought since the 1930s, Fukuyama argues that the movement’s legacy is a complex one that can be  interpreted quite differently than it was after the end of the Cold War. Analyzing the Bush administration’s miscalculations in responding to the post–September 11 challenge, Fukuyama proposes a new approach to American foreign policy through which such mistakes might be turned around—one in which the positive aspects of the neoconservative legacy are joined with a more realistic view of the way American power can be used around the world.

Toward An Anthropological Theory of Value: The False Coin of Our Own Dreams


David Graeber - 2001
    David Graeber reexamines a century of anthropological thought about value and exchange, in large measure to find a way out of quandaries in current social theory, which have become critical at the present moment of ideological collapse in the face of Neoliberalism. Rooted in an engaged, dynamic realism, Graeber argues that projects of cultural comparison are in a sense necessarily revolutionary projects: He attempts to synthesize the best insights of Karl Marx and Marcel Mauss, arguing that these figures represent two extreme, but ultimately complementary, possibilities in the shape such a project might take. Graeber breathes new life into the classic anthropological texts on exchange, value, and economy. He rethinks the cases of Iroquois wampum, Pacific kula exchanges, and the Kwakiutl potlatch within the flow of world historical processes, and recasts value as a model of human meaning-making, which far exceeds rationalist/reductive economist paradigms.

Scorpions for Breakfast: My Fight Against Special Interests, Liberal Media, and Cynical Politicos to Secure America's Border


Jan Brewer - 2011
    Unfairly tarred by liberal critics as a state comprised of racist rednecks, Arizona is on the front lines in the battle against illegal immigration—and the courageous stand of its leader, a national hero who’s been called so tough that she “eats scorpions for breakfast,” will educate and inspire Americans from coast to coast.

The Cost of Rights: Why Liberty Depends on Taxes


Stephen Holmes - 1999
    Drawing from these practical, commonsense notions, The Cost of Rights provides a useful corrective to the all-or-nothing feel of much political debate nowadays (The Economist).

The Tragedy of American Compassion


Marvin Olasky - 1992
    Examines America's dismal welfare state and challenges the church to return to its biblical role as guardian of the poor.

Post-Democracy: A Sociological Introduction


Colin Crouch - 2000
     Colin Crouch argues that the decline of those social classes which had made possible an active and critical mass politics has combined with the rise of global capitalism to produce a self-referential political class more concerned with forging links with wealthy business interests than with pursuing political programmes which meet the concerns of ordinary people. He shows how, in some respects, politics at the dawn of the twenty-first century returns us to a world familiar well before the start of the twentieth, when politics was a game played among elites. However, Crouch maintains that the experience of the twentieth century remains salient and it reminds us of possibilities for the revival of politics. This engaging book will prove challenging to all those who claim that advanced societies have reached a virtual best of all possible democratic worlds, and will be compelling reading for anyone interested in the shape of twenty-first-century politics.

The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison: Ideology, Class, and Criminal Justice


Jeffrey Reiman - 1979
    Also, this text discusses how this bias is accompanied with a general refusal to remedy the causes of crime--poverty, lack of education, and discrimination.

The End of Loser Liberalism: Making Markets Progressive


Dean Baker - 2011
    They have been losing not just because conservatives have so much more money and power, but also because they have accepted the conservatives’ framing of political debates. They have accepted a framing where conservatives want market outcomes whereas liberals want the government to intervene to bring about outcomes that they consider fair.This is not true. Conservatives rely on the government all the time, most importantly in structuring the market in ways that ensure that income flows upwards. The framing that conservatives like the market while liberals like the government puts liberals in the position of seeming to want to tax the winners to help the losers. This "loser liberalism" is bad policy and horrible politics. Progressives would be better off fighting battles over the structure of markets so that they don't redistribute income upward. This book describes some of the key areas where progressives can focus their efforts in restructuring market so that more income flows to the bulk of the working population rather than just a small elite.

How To Make Money in Intraday Trading


Ashwani Gujral - 2018
    This book reveals Ashwani’s time-tested and practical day trading strategies & systems which are easy to understand and implement: • The 3Ms of trading success — method, money management & mind-set • The technical pillars — moving averages, pivots & exceptional candles • Profitable trade entry, trade management & exit tactics • How to trade the morning range, trends, gaps, & sideways markets • How to add the catalyst of big news events to power your trades • How to avoid — and profit from — market traps • How to harness the explosive power of multiple trading tools working in tandem • Money management — position size & risk management • How to master your mind in order to vanquish the market • The daily discipline of a successful day trader. Packed with 200 real market examples & charts, this book shows you how to approach the market every single trading day like a winner, equipped with appropriate technical expertise and supreme self-confidence. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ashwani Gujral is one of India’s most famous market analysts & trading experts. He is the Chief Market Strategist and Fund Manager of ashwanigujral.com and a regular market commentator including on CNBC TV18 business channel. He has written on trading & technical analysis for leading US specialist magazines and journals, including The Active Trader, Stock Futures and Options, Futures, Trader’s Source and Technical Analysis of Stocks and Commodities. Ashwani has been a full time trader of stocks and derivatives since 1995. His activities include running a technical analysis plus trading chatroom and newsletter. This is his third book.

Other People's Money and How the Bankers Use It (The Bedford Series in History and Culture)


Louis D. Brandeis - 1914
    A thorough introduction and questinos for considerations accompany the full text of Louis Brandeis's 1914 work.

The Market System: What It Is, How It Works, and What To Make of It


Charles E. Lindblom - 2001
    "A balanced and novel treatment of a very important set of questions. This is a book of grand scope by an outstanding scholar."—Samuel Bowles, University of Massachusetts, Amherst "Anyone who wants to know more about the market system’s plusses and minuses, how government can help or hinder its workings, and the direction in which it is likely to move should read this clear, fair, and fascinating book."—Robert Heilbroner, professor emeritus, New School University"The Market System resplendently assesses the character, rules, advantages, and shortcomings of the central institution coordinating modern economic and social life. Lindblom marshals his incisive intellect, uncommon range, and pellucid prose to clarify, probe, and exhort. The result is an unsurpassed guide."—Ira I. Katznelson, Columbia University

101 Things Everyone Should Know About Economics: A Down and Dirty Guide to Everything from Securities and Derivatives to Interest Rates and Hedge Funds - And What They Mean For You


Peter Sander - 2009
    This easy-to-understand guide answers all the questions you need to know to secure your financial future, such as: What does it mean to my paycheck when the Fed lowers or raises interest rates?What's the difference between bonds, securities, and derivatives - and which should I invest in now?What does Keynesian economics have to do with my savings? For those people whose heads spin when reading the business pages of the newspaper, here's a roadmap through the economic jungle. In simple, plain language, Peter Sander explains how economies work, why they grow, how they contract, and what the government can and can't do to help them. Most important, he tells you how all this affects "you" - and what kind of changes you're going to see in your finances as a result.Economics has been called the dismal" science. But it doesn't need to be gloomy or impenetrable. This book is an essential guide for anyone who wants to understand where the economy is today, where it's going, and what it means for the rest of us."