For a magazine dedicated to debunking the nation's business culture, the final years of the twentieth century overflowed with bounty. "It was the most spectacular outbreak of mass delirium that we are likely to see in our lifetimes," wrote the editors of The Baffler. What was for others the dawn of a "New Economy" was for The Baffler a cornucopia of absurdity the costliest political and financial hustle in living memory. Reporting from places far from the white-hot centers of the libertarian revolution, Baffler writers were the people of whom it was fashionable to say they just don't get it. W... View More...
In the "old" Gilded Age, the barons of business accumulated vast wealth and influence from their railroads, steel mills, and banks. But today it is culture that stands at the heart of the American enterprise, mass entertainment the economic dynamo that brings the public into the consuming fold and consolidates the power of business over the American mind. For a decade The Baffler has been the invigorating voice of dissent against these developments, in the grand tradition of the muckrakers and The American Mercury. This collection gathers the best of its writing to explore such peculiar develo... View More...
More than two and a half years have passed since China announced a number of changes to its foreign exchange regime in July 2005. During this period, the debate on the pros and cons of China's exchange rate policy, which had begun in earnest several years earlier, intensified. This important new book, based on an Institute conference in October 2007, takes stock of exchange rate policy in China and identifies the major policy options going forward. Specific proposals presented in the volume address how best to eliminate any misalignment of the renminbi; how best to reduce pressures emanating f... View More...
Praised as a "page-turner...just the kind of spotlight that is needed" (Counterpunch) and "a potent chronicle of America's 'extreme inequality'" (Kirkus Reviews), Divided collects the writings of leading scholars, activists, and journalists--including Elizabeth Warren, President Barack Obama, Joseph E. Stiglitz, Paul Krugman, and Barbara Ehrenreich--to provide an illuminating, multifaceted look at one of the most pressing issues facing America today. According to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Cay Johnston, most Americans, in inflation-adjusted terms, are now back to the average incom... View More...
As the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) celebrate fifty years of economic dominion over the Third World, this reader brings the best progressive authors together to critique these two main proponents of neo-liberalism. "50 Years is Enough" covers such topics as failed development projects, the feminization of poverty, the detruction of the environment, the internal workings of the World Bank and the IMF, and the struggle to build alternatives to neo-liberal policies.It also includes a guide to the many organizations involved in the struggle to reform the World Bank and the ... View More...
How has the ability of Jews to amass and wield power, within both Jewish and non-Jewish society, influenced and been influenced by their economic activity? Purchasing Power answers this question by examining the nexus between money and power in modern Jewish history. It does so, in its first section, by presenting a series of case studies of the ways in which the economic choices made by Jewish businessmen could bring them wealth and influence. The second section focuses on transnational Jewish philanthropic and economic networks. The discussions there reveal how the wielding of power by Jewis... View More...
NAFTA. The WTO. Trade agreements are supposed to benefit us all. Instead, in the decade since they've been in effect, life has become much worse for millions of working Americans. In Shafted, working people-family farmers and farmworkers, fishermen and seamstresses-describe the ruin free trade has brought to them, their families, and their towns. These aren't theorists; these are the voices of experience. And they're telling us, clearly and eloquently, that it's time to stop the madness that enriches a few corporations at the cost of justice, human rights, community, family, and the dignity of... View More...
What did the January 1999 arrival of the Euro mean, and how will it affect the rest of the world's currencies? PROMEURO, the organisation with the responsibility of promoting the Euro throughout the world, sets out to explain the introduction of Europe's own unit of currency. View More...
The international debt crisis which hit the headlines in September 1982 has underlined the power that is wielded by the International Monetary Fund. As the ultimate source of credit for heavily endebted Third World countries, it can impose onerous conditions on those nations that need its assistance. The burden of such conditions always falls most heavily on the poorest sectors of the population. The Poverty Brokers rejects the IMF claim that these conditions are based purely on technical considerations. The IMF subscribes to a particular political and economic view of the world which refelect... View More...
A collection of essays that "do an incredible job of balancing the wonders and horrors of the force that is Wal-Mart" (Booklist, starred review). Edited by one of the nation's preeminent labor historians, this book marks an ambitious effort to dissect the full extent of Wal-Mart's business operations, its social effects, and its role in the United States and world economy. Wal-Mart is based on a spring 2004 conference of leading historians, business analysts, sociologists, and labor leaders that immediately attracted the attention of the national media, drawing profiles in the New York Times,... View More...
This positive and practical guide for the first-time entrepreneur details the life cycle of a small-business launch with real-life stories and a slew of helpful hints and strategies.-Publishers Weekly PW and AARP's Roundup of Spring Books for Baby Boomers, 4/15/08 Customized for the female entrepreneur's unique psychological experience of launching a business, Birthing the Elephant goes beyond logistics to prepare women for the emotional challenges they will face, with expert advice on reshaping one's business identity, giving up the paycheck mentality, anticipating problems, and avoiding cost... View More...
