Well written, but sympathetic readers will find sounder footing elsewhere.
Another exhortation to dismantle the Federal Reserve System.
Opposition to central banking predates the nation’s founding. After financial panics, as in 2008, calls to repeal the 1913 Federal Reserve Act intensify. Shane (In God We Trust, 2007, etc.) offers a highly readable, plain-language explanation of our arcane monetary system but a rather breezily argued proposal to cure the national debt. He would replace the current system of lending new money into circulation through the issuance of corresponding public debt (Treasury bonds) with a debt-free system in which Congress creates money directly and the government spends it into circulation to pay its bills. Unlike former U.S. representative and presidential candidate Ron Paul, author of End the Fed, Shane does not favor restoring the gold standard as an external constraint on inflation, arguing instead that “the same trust, confidence, power and authority (fiat) that made the bond ‘good’ will make the bill ‘good’ as well.” He does not explain how Congress, locked in partisan wrangling with a 17 percent approval rating, will more effectively manage the money supply or serve the public interest, other than repeatedly intoning that it’s responsible to “We the People.” Like most Fed opponents, he criticizes its ownership structure and bankers’ inherent incentives to perpetuate debt, but he never mentions the statutory requirement that the Federal Reserve remit all profits above 6 percent to the U.S. Treasury (a record $88.9 billion in 2012). He lists numerous historical examples of direct money introduction but sidesteps how such systems have failed. Shane’s writing displays considerable acumen, but the book cites no sources and offers no bibliography. While formal credentials are not a prerequisite for writing about the subject (the cover describes him as a sailor, author, entrepreneur, business owner, trader and explorer), the gravity and scope of the changes he advocates beg for authority and intellectual context, rendering his argument more of a book-length op-ed than a solid advancement of the cause.
Well written, but sympathetic readers will find sounder footing elsewhere.Pub Date: May 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1449790554
Page Count: 166
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 17, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.
“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.
It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
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