Is all this pie-in-the-sky thinking? Perhaps so, but Smick’s call for a fairer capitalism makes for bracing reading for...
The worst enemy of capitalism is…capitalism.
That is one takeaway from financial adviser Smick (The World Is Curved: Hidden Dangers to the Global Economy, 2008), the founder and publisher of International Economy magazine. One of the lessons learned from the recent presidential election is that there is a hunger for populism in the United States, whether of an authoritarian or a libertarian nature. Thus the Bernie Sanders campaign, which held capitalism as an economic system to be the chief author of our woes. However, writes the author, the culprit is not so much the system of private profit for goods and services, but a global machine that has become much larger and more entrenched than anyone might ever have imagined. “In recent decades, a Corporate Capitalism of inside deal-making, elite special privilege, and dominance by large institutions has...exerted a stranglehold over the U.S. economy,” writes Smick, going on to say that this kind of capitalism is not the kind that we ought to preserve. In its place the author advocates for “Main Street Capitalism,” characterized by openness of access and entry and favoring entrepreneurship and small business, the historic engines of most economic growth. Smick is long on both diagnosis and prescription; he offers detailed notes, for instance, on how tax policy favors the big players, with a private equity firm on Wall Street paying 15 percent capital gains while a family-owned dry cleaner down the road would pay half that. Populist sentiment aside, and though there's really not a whole lot new here, the author is clearly on the side of capitalism against any other kind of -ism, in the interest of which he proposes a “14-point plan” that leverages political compromise, tax and educational reforms, a modest minimum wage hike, and other measures to level a playing field that is indisputably tilted.
Is all this pie-in-the-sky thinking? Perhaps so, but Smick’s call for a fairer capitalism makes for bracing reading for students of the modern economy and polity.Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-61039-784-1
Page Count: 272
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
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These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
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