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SHORT-TERM AMERICA

Name: SHORT-TERM AMERICA
Author: Michael T. Jacobs
ISBN: 0-87584-300-X

THE CAUSES AND CURES OF OUR BUSINESS MYOPIA

by Michael T. Jacobs ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 4, 1991

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A savvy, wide-ranging audit of the reasons American business is losing ground to Asian and European rivals, plus thoughtful prescriptions for retrieving the situation. Having recently spent two years as the US Treasury's director of corporate finance, Jacobs (now a Washington-based consultant) has an insider's sophisticated appreciation of the structural issues he addresses. Arguing that the commercial equivalent of instant gratification is a root cause of the nation's eroding competitiveness in global markets, the author identifies a number of problem areas—among others, disengaged investors, an adversarial system of corporate governance, high-cost capital, and shortsighted executive-compensation practices. Citing the enviable records compiled by major enterprises in Germany and Japan (where cross-ownership among affiliated companies, including depository institutions, creates a stable source of expansion/diversification funds as well as inducements to take a longer view), Jacobs offers a detailed package of reform proposals. He recommends, for instance, employing carrots and sticks to develop a new class of patient investors willing and able to work constructively with the concerns whose securities they hold. The author also counsels making corporate directors genuinely independent and hence more accountable to stockholders. Though he doubts Congress is up to the job, Jacobs would like to see a thoroughgoing overhaul of the US banking/financial system. Lastly, he urges managerial pay policies that reward long-term results, not tenure or expedients. Perceptive analyses of socioeconomic problems that require the immediate attention of the electorate—and of special interests that have failed to heed Benjamin Franklin's still timely warning: ``We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.''

Pub Date: Oct. 4, 1991

ISBN: 0-87584-300-X

Page Count: 268

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1991

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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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

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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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.