Wriston (Risk and Other Four-Letter Words, 1985), former chief of Citibank and an emir of Wall Street prior to its Era of Excess, ponders the future and finds it pretty good. Information, factual and financial, electronically girdles the globe like the rings of Saturn. Knowledge, more than ever, is power in the global village, and information is wealth. Information, resolved into the thousand points of computer light on the trading floors of the world, is a form of wealth, Wriston says, that no sovereign nation or transnational corporation will be able to control or contain. With the advent of instantaneous communication, national borders dissolve. Mighty enterprises are no longer situated in particular places, subject to simple authority. Current accounting theory is inadequate and the notion of gross national product is outdated. Information, the author continues, is ``the virus that is carrying the powerful idea of freedom to the four corners of the world, and modern technology assures that sooner rather than later everyone on the planet will have heard the message.'' Wriston places scant value on the future value of fixed wealth, like real estate, and he doesn't discuss oil. He assumes that the information forming the new wealth will be true (he spends some time on cryptography) and that the messages of freedom will be honest. He doesn't discuss the need to handle the handlers, the creators of the S&L debacle, and the junk-bond pirates, all masters of misinformation through modern technology. His thesis, nevertheless, is potent and curiously attractive. Discursive, thoughtful, and full of significant implications for the future of world economics and public policy.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-684-19454-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1992
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
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.
