by Karan Doshi ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 24, 2019
An uneven, meandering, and sometimes alarmist, brief on American industrial policy.
It’s time for the United States government to vigorously challenge China’s rising economic and military power, according to this hard-nosed treatise.
Doshi (Land Acquisition in India, 2015), an Indian author and avowed “Americanophile,” presents wide-ranging criticisms of the Chinese government and its ambitions to replace the United States as a global hegemon. China, he notes, is a one-party dictatorship that allows no freedom of speech or religion and persecutes dissidents at home and abroad. It insists on free trade for its exports while closing its markets to imports with Byzantine regulations, domestic partnerships, technology-transfer requirements, and a dishonest judiciary, he asserts, while also stealing industrial and military secrets from American companies. It has pursued an expansionary policy against its neighbors in the South China Sea, he says, and propped up North Korea’s dangerous regime. A particular sore point for Doshi is that China helped Pakistan with its nuclear weapons and missile programs—which it did in order to foment nuclear war between Pakistan and India, he asserts. China may succeed in eclipsing America, Doshi warns, due to an economic dynamic that he dubs “K-Nomics,” in which the Chinese economy thrives by focusing on manufacturing and industry—the true sources of wealth—while the U.S. economy languishes as it moves toward service sectors. His prescription for “rebooting” America relies on reversing the K-Nomic imbalance. Doshi recommends raising tariffs on Chinese imports with a “Pollution Tax” that would redress America’s cost disadvantage due to stricter environmental regulations, and a “Humane Working Tax” to nullify the advantages China gains from its low wages and poor labor conditions. He further suggests a program of deregulation, subsidies, and government infrastructure investment. Doshi’s case against Chinese misbehavior is lucid and well supported by statistics and press reports on everything from trade issues to Beijing’s refusal to give Canadian beauty queen and human rights activist Anastasia Lin a visa. There are many excursions into intriguing but arcane topics, such as how statistical models relate to consciousness. The author tends to write like an engineer, with careful attention to first principles and a fondness for elaborate examples, especially in economics sections: “Now, suppose you had to put up only 20 dollars to take a position of a 100 dollars. Now your leverage would be 400%. Now if the price went up to a 110, your profit would be 50%.” Doshi’s K-Nomics framework will please economic nationalists with its celebration of manufacturing, but mainstream economists may consider his disparagement of service economies and protectionism unwise. Although there’s much common sense in the book, its recommendations for American military policy are aggressive to the point of recklessness. For example, Doshi suggests that the United States help India’s nuclear weapons and missile programs with technology and fissile material, allow South Korea and Japan to build nuclear weapons, and build artificial islands stocked with weaponry in the South China Sea to counter China’s artificial islands there. Readers concerned about Sino-American relations may have misgivings about such militancy.
An uneven, meandering, and sometimes alarmist, brief on American industrial policy.Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-79785-234-8
Page Count: 303
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: Oct. 24, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Share your opinion of this book
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
Share your opinion of this book
More by E.T.A. Hoffmann
BOOK REVIEW
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson
BOOK REVIEW
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis
by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
Share your opinion of this book
More by Ludwig Bemelmans
BOOK REVIEW
developed by Ludwig Bemelmans ; illustrated by Steven Salerno
BOOK REVIEW
by Ludwig Bemelmans ; illustrated by Steven Salerno
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.