The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy


Raj Patel - 2009
    He reveals the hidden ecological and social costs of a hamburger (as much as $200), and asks how we came to have markets in the first place. Both the corporate capture of government and our current financial crisis, Patel argues, are a result of our democratically bankrupt political system.If part one asks how we can rebalance society and limit markets, part two answers by showing how social organizations, in America and around the globe, are finding new ways to describe the world's worth. If we don't want the market to price every aspect of our lives, we need to learn how such organizations have discovered democratic ways in which people, and not simply governments, can play a crucial role in deciding how we might share our world and its resources in common.This short, timely and inspiring book reveals that our current crisis is not simply the result of too much of the wrong kind of economics. While we need to rethink our economic model, Patel argues that the larger failure beneath the food, climate and economic crises is a political one. If economics is about choices, Patel writes, it isn't often said who gets to make them. The Value of Nothing offers a fresh and accessible way to think about economics and the choices we will all need to make in order to create a sustainable economy and society.

How Democracy Ends


David Runciman - 2018
    Yet today, it seems radically imperiled, even in some of the world's most stable democracies. How bad could things get?In How Democracy Ends, David Runciman argues that we are trapped in outdated twentieth-century ideas of democratic failure. By fixating on coups and violence, we are focusing on the wrong threats. Our societies are too affluent, too elderly, and too networked to fall apart as they did in the past. We need new ways of thinking the unthinkable--a twenty-first-century vision of the end of democracy, and whether its collapse might allow us to move forward to something better.A provocative book by a major political philosopher, How Democracy Ends asks the most trenchant questions that underlie the disturbing patterns of our contemporary political life.

Zero Footprint: The True Story of a Private Military Contractor's Covert Assignments in Syria, Libya, and the World's Most Dangerous Places


Simon Chase - 2016
    Working for the CIA's Special Activities Division, the U.S. DoD, the U.S. State Department, and British government entities, Chase has been on the trail of Bin Laden in Afghanistan, protected U.S. Generals in Iraq, and been part of an operation directly related to the U.S. Consulate overrun in Benghazi. ZERO FOOTPRINT leads us through this dangerous and thrilling world and tells the true story of a private military contractor whose work forms the foundation for American security abroad--especially when U.S. and UK militaries, intelligence agencies, and departments of state need something done that they can't--or won't--do themselves.

You're More Powerful than You Think: A Citizen’s Guide to Making Change Happen


Eric Liu - 2017
    We are in an age of epic political turbulence in America. Old hierarchies and institutions are collapsing. From the election of Donald Trump to the upending of the major political parties to the spread of grassroots movements like Black Lives Matter and $15 Now, people across the country and across the political spectrum are reclaiming power. Are you ready for this age of bottom-up citizen power? Do you understand what power truly is, how it flows, who has it, and how you can claim and exercise it? Eric Liu, who has spent a career practicing and teaching civic power, lays out the answers in this incisive, inspiring, and provocative book. Using examples from the left and the right, past and present, he reveals the core laws of power. He shows that all of us can generate power-and then, step by step, he shows us how. The strategies of reform and revolution he lays out will help every reader make sense of our world today. If you want to be more than a spectator in this new era, you need to read this book.

100 Property Investment Tips: Learn from the experts and accelerate your success


Rob Dix - 2015
    From sussing out the best deals and financing your investment to organising your taxes and dealing with tenants, it's all here - helping you to make more money with less stress.Among the 100 curated, carefully organised property investment tips in this book, you'll learn: Why you're doing your calculations all wrong How to use leverage to multiply your returns How to delegate The realistic alternatives to buy-to-let Why - and how - to buy below market value How to compete when you're constantly priced out by other buyers Ways to add value How to win at auctions Why you should get over your fear of interest-only mortgages What counts as an "expense" - and how to claim it A ton of nifty property investment tips, tricks and hacks for sourcing, financing and managing your propertyThe tips are organised into the following sections: Get started in property investment Find a deal Finance your investment Deal with tenants and management Focus on your strategy and goals Sort out your tax and accounts Tips, tricks and hacksWhatever your level of experience, you're sure to find some great new ideas to make you a more effective property investor.

Dictatorland: The Men Who Stole Africa


Paul Kenyon - 2018
    The austere, incorruptible leader who has shut Eritrea off from the world in a permanent state of war and conscripted every adult into the armed forces. In Equatorial Guinea, the paranoid despot who thought Hitler was the saviour of Africa and waged a relentless campaign of terror against his own people. The Libyan army officer who authored a new work of political philosophy, The Green Book, and lived in a tent with a harem of female soldiers, running his country like a mafia family business.And behind these almost incredible stories of fantastic violence and excess lie the dark secrets of Western greed and complicity, the insatiable taste for chocolate, oil, diamonds and gold that has encouraged dictators to rule with an iron hand, siphoning off their share of the action into mansions in Paris and banks in Zurich and keeping their people in dire poverty.

Law of Attraction: Secrets To Unleashing The Power From Within (FREE BONUS INSIDE, money, happiness, love, success, achieve, dreams, visualisation techniques Book 1)


Daniel D'apollonio - 2016
     Secrets To Unleashing The Power From Within! The law of attraction is something almost everyone has experienced, on a conscious or subconscious level at one time or the other. Even as we speak, you have experienced the law of attraction at some point in your life. Do you doubt this immutable fact? Consider this: Look back to all those times when you were thinking about someone, your phone started ringing with the person you were thinking of on the other end of the line, or the time when you were thinking about someone, and out of nowhere, you bump into the person on the street. You may choose to label these things mere ‘coincidences,’ ‘luck,’ or ‘fate’ because a part of you finds it difficult to accept the existence of energy in sync with your thoughts, an energy capable of attracting the things you want. This energy is the universal energy. You can tap into this energy to transform every aspect of your life and attract everything you desire. How do you do that; how do you tap into this power? Well, you use the law of attraction. What is the law of attraction? This book will teach you everything about the law of attraction, how it works, and then detail how you can consciously begin to use it to get the things you want whether these things are the ideal relationship, a good job, better health, money, you name it. Here Is A Preview Of What You'll Learn... The Law Of Attraction Explained Does The Law Of Attraction Work? The Law Of Attraction And Negative Thinking How To Use The Law Of Attraction When The Law Of Attraction Appears Not To Work And much, much more! Check Out What Others Are Saying... Breaks it all down pretty simply. "This short book did a very good job of simplifying the Law of Attraction. The general positive attitude the book exudes makes me a believer." You are the energy you attract "I've always been a universalist and i firmly believe in the power of the mind. This was an inspiring read that just helped reaffirm my initial beliefs. It mainly talks about the law of attraction and how you can unleash your mind's capacity. I've achieved a lot of things in my life that I used to just dream about and i have law of attraction and reads such as this book to thanks for that." The secrets are real! "This is a great book for learning the Law of Attraction and how to read all the signs that occur when you’re manifesting something. I was going though a difficult time. His books helped me in more ways than I can describe. He has such a positive. Even today if I feel down I read this book and changes my day." To Live Your Greatest Life, You Must Become A Leader Within Yourself. TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR LIFE, Begin Attracting And Manifesting All The Thing You Want in life! Tags: Law of attraction, positive th

Everybody Loves a Good Drought


Palagummi Sainath - 1996
    In the dry language of development reports and economic projections, the true misery of the 312 million who live below the poverty line, or the 26 million displaced by various projects, or the 13 million who suffer from tuberculosis gets overlooked. In this thoroughly researched study of the poorest of the poor, we get to see how they manage, what sustains them, and the efforts, often ludicrous, to do something for them. The people who figure in this book typify the lives and aspirations of a large section of Indian society, and their stories present us with the true face of development.

Ikigai: The Japanese Way to a Happy Healthy Long Life


Eric Goodfellow - 2018
    The benefits of doing so are explained and the formula to discovering your personal ikigai is within the pages of this book.Change your outlook and give yourself a reason for getting up in the morning, surround yourself with positive people and improve your life. That is the root of the ikigai, to find your bliss!

Allen Carr's Easy Way to Enjoy Flying


Allen Carr - 2000
    This title intends to remove the root of the fear, not just the symptoms and is packed with tips to help you on your next flight.

The Globalization Paradox: Democracy and the Future of the World Economy


Dani Rodrik - 2010
    The economic narratives that underpinned these eras—the gold standard, the Bretton Woods regime, the "Washington Consensus"—brought great success and great failure. In this eloquent challenge to the reigning wisdom on globalization, Dani Rodrik offers a new narrative, one that embraces an ineluctable tension: we cannot simultaneously pursue democracy, national self-determination, and economic globalization. When the social arrangements of democracies inevitably clash with the international demands of globalization, national priorities should take precedence. Combining history with insight, humor with good-natured critique, Rodrik's case for a customizable globalization supported by a light frame of international rules shows the way to a balanced prosperity as we confront today's global challenges in trade, finance, and labor markets.

Little America: The War Within the War for Afghanistan


Rajiv Chandrasekaran - 2012
    When President Barack Obama ordered the surge of troops and aid to Afghanistan, Washington Post correspondent Rajiv Chandrasekaran followed. He found the effort sabotaged not only by Afghan and Pakistani malfeasance but by infighting and incompetence within the American government: a war cabinet arrested by vicious bickering among top national security aides; diplomats and aid workers who failed to deliver on their grand promises; generals who dispatched troops to the wrong places; and headstrong military leaders who sought a far more expansive campaign than the White House wanted. Through their bungling and quarreling, they wound up squandering the first year of the surge. Chandrasekaran explains how the United States has never understood Afghanistan—and probably never will. During the Cold War, American engineers undertook a massive development project across southern Afghanistan in an attempt to woo the country from Soviet influence. They built dams and irrigation canals, and they established a comfortable residential community known as Little America, with a Western-style school, a coed community pool, and a plush clubhouse—all of which embodied American and Afghan hopes for a bright future and a close relationship. But in the late 1970s—after growing Afghan resistance and a Communist coup—the Americans abandoned the region to warlords and poppy farmers. In one revelatory scene after another, Chandrasekaran follows American efforts to reclaim the very same territory from the Taliban. Along the way, we meet an Army general whose experience as the top military officer in charge of Iraq’s Green Zone couldn’t prepare him for the bureaucratic knots of Afghanistan, a Marine commander whose desire to charge into remote hamlets conflicted with civilian priorities, and a war-seasoned diplomat frustrated in his push for a scaled-down but long-term American commitment. Their struggles show how Obama’s hope of a good war, and the Pentagon’s desire for a resounding victory, shriveled on the arid plains of southern Afghanistan. Meticulously reported, hugely revealing, Little America is an unprecedented examination of a failing war—and an eye-opening look at the complex relationship between America and Afghanistan.

The Way They Were: Dealing with Your Parents' Divorce After a Lifetime of Marriage


Brooke Lea Foster - 2006
    Written by an award-winning journalist who has lived through her own parents’ midlife divorce, this practical, comforting guide includes advice on: • How to help your parents without getting caught in the middle• How to have tough conversations with your parents about money, property, and inheritance—theirs and yours• How to understand the complexities of infidelity and stepfamilies• How to rebuild relationships with each parent after the divorceFrom the Trade Paperback edition.

Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy


Noam Chomsky - 2006
    سیاست امروز

The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution: Why Economic Inequality Threatens Our Republic


Ganesh Sitaraman - 2017
    A New York Times Notable Book of 2017For most of Western history, Sitaraman argues, constitutional thinkers assumed economic inequality was inevitable and inescapable--and they designed governments to prevent class divisions from spilling over into class warfare. The American Constitution is different. Compared to Europe and the ancient world, America was a society of almost unprecedented economic equality, and the founding generation saw this equality as essential for the preservation of America's republic. Over the next two centuries, generations of Americans fought to sustain the economic preconditions for our constitutional system. But today, with economic and political inequality on the rise, Sitaraman says Americans face a choice: Will we accept rising economic inequality and risk oligarchy or will we rebuild the middle class and reclaim our republic?The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution is a tour de force of history, philosophy, law, and politics. It makes a compelling case that inequality is more than just a moral or economic problem; it threatens the very core of our constitutional system.