Capital Resurgent

Capital Resurgent PDF Author: Gérard Duménil
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674011588
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
"The sequence of events initiated by neoliberalism is not unprecedented. In the late nineteenth century, when economic conditions were similar to those of the 1970s, a structural crisis led to a financial hegemony, culminating in the speculative boom of the late 1920s."--BOOK JACKET.

Capital Resurgent

Capital Resurgent PDF Author: Gérard Duménil
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674011588
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
"The sequence of events initiated by neoliberalism is not unprecedented. In the late nineteenth century, when economic conditions were similar to those of the 1970s, a structural crisis led to a financial hegemony, culminating in the speculative boom of the late 1920s."--BOOK JACKET.

Rome Resurgent

Rome Resurgent PDF Author: Peter Heather
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199362769
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 409

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Book Description
Between the fall of the western Roman Empire in the fifth century and the collapse of the east in the face of the Arab invasions in the seventh, the remarkable era of the Emperor Justinian (527-568) dominated the Mediterranean region. Famous for his conquests in Italy and North Africa, and for the creation of spectacular monuments such as the Hagia Sophia, his reign was also marked by global religious conflict within the Christian world and an outbreak of plague that some have compared to the Black Death. For many historians, Justinian is far more than an anomaly of Byzantine ambition between the eras of Attila and Muhammad; he is the causal link that binds together the two moments of Roman imperial collapse. Determined to reverse the losses Rome suffered in the fifth century, Justinian unleashed an aggressive campaign in the face of tremendous adversity, not least the plague. This book offers a fundamentally new interpretation of his conquest policy and its overall strategic effect, which has often been seen as imperial overreach, making the regime vulnerable to the Islamic takeover of its richest territories in the seventh century and thus transforming the great Roman Empire of Late Antiquity into its pale shadow of the Middle Ages. In Rome Resurgent, historian Peter Heather draws heavily upon contemporary sources, including the writings of Procopius, the principal historian of the time, while also recasting that author's narrative by bringing together new perspectives based on a wide array of additional source material. A huge body of archaeological evidence has become available for the sixth century, providing entirely new means of understanding the overall effects of Justinian's war policies. Building on his own distinguished work on the Vandals, Goths, and Persians, Heather also gives much fuller coverage to Rome's enemies than Procopius ever did. A briskly paced narrative by a master historian, Rome Resurgent promises to introduce readers to this captivating and unjustly overlooked chapter in ancient warfare.

The Crisis of Neoliberalism

The Crisis of Neoliberalism PDF Author: Gérard Duménil
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674049888
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
This book examines “the great contraction” of 2007–2010 within the context of the neoliberal globalization that began in the early 1980s. This new phase of capitalism greatly enriched the top 5 percent of Americans, including capitalists and financial managers, but at a significant cost to the country as a whole. Declining domestic investment in manufacturing, unsustainable household debt, rising dependence on imports and financing, and the growth of a fragile and unwieldy global financial structure threaten the strength of the dollar. Unless these trends are reversed, the authors predict, the U.S. economy will face sharp decline.Summarizing a large amount of troubling data, the authors show that manufacturing has declined from 40 percent of GDP to under 10 percent in thirty years. Since consumption drives the American economy and since manufactured goods comprise the largest share of consumer purchases, clearly we will not be able to sustain the accumulating trade deficits.Rather than blame individuals, such as Greenspan or Bernanke, the authors focus on larger forces. Repairing the breach in our economy will require limits on free trade and the free international movement of capital; policies aimed at improving education, research, and infrastructure; reindustrialization; and the taxation of higher incomes.

Urban Green

Urban Green PDF Author: Peter Harnik
Publisher: Island Press
ISBN: 1597268127
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description
For years American urban parks fell into decay due to disinvestment, but as cities began to rebound—and evidence of the economic, cultural, and health benefits of parks grew— investment in urban parks swelled. The U.S. Conference of Mayors recently cited meeting the growing demand for parks and open space as one of the biggest challenges for urban leaders today. It is now widely agreed that the U.S. needs an ambitious and creative plan to increase urban parklands. Urban Green explores new and innovative ways for “built out” cities to add much-needed parks. Peter Harnik first explores the question of why urban parkland is needed and then looks at ways to determine how much is possible and where park investment should go. When presenting the ideas and examples for parkland, he also recommends political practices that help create parks. The book offers many practical solutions, from reusing the land under defunct factories to sharing schoolyards, from building trails on abandoned tracks to planting community gardens, from decking parks over highways to allowing more activities in cemeteries, from eliminating parking lots to uncovering buried streams, and more. No strategy alone is perfect, and each has its own set of realities. But collectively they suggest a path toward making modern cities more beautiful, more sociable, more fun, more ecologically sound, and more successful.

A Resurgent East Asia

A Resurgent East Asia PDF Author: Andrew D. Mason
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 146481371X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 325

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Book Description
East Asia has been a paragon of global development success. The dramatictransformation of the region over the past half century—with a succession ofcountries having progressed from low-income to middle-income and even to high-incomestatus—has been built on what has come to be known as the “East Asiandevelopment model.” A combination of policies that fostered outward-oriented, labor-intensivegrowth while strengthening basic human capital and providing sound economicgovernance has been instrumental in moving hundreds of millions of people out ofpoverty and into economic security.Yet East Asia’s economic resurgence remains incomplete. More than 90 percent of its peoplenow live in 10 middle-income countries, many of which can realistically aspire to high-incomestatus in the next generation or two. But these countries are still much less affluent andproductive than their high-income counterparts. Even as the region’s middle-income countriesattempt to move up to high-income status, they confront a rapidly changing global andregional economic environment. Slowing growth in global trade and shifts in its patterns,rapid technological change, and evolving country circumstances all present challenges tosustaining productivity growth, fostering inclusion, and enhancing state effectiveness.A Resurgent East Asia: Navigating a Changing World is about how policy makersacross developing East Asia will need to adapt their development model to effectivelyaddress these challenges in the coming decade and sustain the region’s remarkabledevelopment performance.“The world is changing. How do East Asia’s developing economies navigate this change?This is a commendable book on this topic—a must-read for policy makers, academia,and students who are interested in East Asia.”— Chatib Basri, Former Minister of Finance, Government of Indonesia“A Resurgent East Asia is a vital publication for the most successful region as it looks tothe future and the expectations of its citizens. This study helps to identify the new areasof risk and to suggest ways to ameliorate them. In so doing, it is an invaluable resourcefor governments. Based on first-rate analysis, it is a must-read for policy makers andeveryone interested in East Asia’s development prospects!”— Danny Leipziger, Managing Director, The Growth Dialogue, and Professorof International Business, George Washington University“This report delivers a careful and rigorous analysis of the strengths of East Asia’s ‘growthwith equity’ development strategy. While noting the model’s success in lifting millions outof poverty, the report also warns of the looming challenge of maintaining growth withinclusion, and it highlights the need for countries to improve their social protection systemsand ensure that opportunities are fair and available to all. A must-read for policy makersand development practitioners alike.”— Ana Revenga, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution

Resurgent Asia

Resurgent Asia PDF Author: Deepak Nayyar
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198849516
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
Over the last fifty years Asia has transformed beyond recognition. Resurgent Asia provides an analytical narrative of Asia's incredible development situated in the wider context of historical, political, and social factors.

Kremlin Capitalism

Kremlin Capitalism PDF Author: Joseph R. Blasi
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501722220
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
The first book to describe Russia's massive economic transformation for an American audience, Kremlin Capitalism provides a wealth of data and analyses not previously available in this country. The authors articulate the political and economic goals of Russian privatization, examine the current ownership of the largest enterprises in Russia, and chart the serious problem of corporate governance in the new private businesses. Kremlin Capitalism is based on the only continuous study of Russian privatization throughout the Russian Federation from 1992 to the present. The authors tracked down the story of the transition in the cities, towns, and villages of fifty of Russia's eighty-nine provinces, updating their findings after the June 1996 election. The result is an up-to-the-minute report of the largest property transfer in history and an analysis of one of this century's most significant economic transformations. The volume also characterizes the position of workers in terms of unemployment, wages, union power, and their changing role as employee shareholders.What really happened when Russia privatized its economy? The Kremlin brokered the initial struggle among different interest groups eager to claim a portion of Russian property: workers, managers, the Mafia, the old Soviet bureaucracy, regular citizens, entrepreneurs, Russian banks, and foreigners. While competing with one another, all struggled to free themselves from seventy years of Communist economic culture. Four years after the process began, have large companies learned to offer goods and services profitably and pay dividends to shareholders? Individual stories come alive as the book explores problems Russians face in structuring a new economic system, defining the ownership and governance of thousands of corporations one by one. Russian economic practices are being forged in the heat of fierce political struggles between resurgent Communists and nationalists and old Soviet managers, on the one hand, and more liberal elements of its infant democratic system on the other. Whether a few big conglomerates and the powerful banks and holding companies from Soviet days will dominate the new Russian economy to the exclusion of most citizens remains to be seen.Many questions persist. How will billions of dollars of capital be raised to retool, restructure, and reorient the heart and soul of Russia's economy? Will open stock markets stimulate a new economic order or will that new order be imposed through strong state supports and subsidies? What role will be played by shadowy conglomerates that are trying to shape a disorganized economy into something resembling the old Soviet system? The authors note the paradox of a capitalism conceived, designed, implemented, and evaluated by the Kremlin when one aim of reform is to allow market forces to play freely. Kremlin Capitalism asks whether rapid privatization has catalyzed or complicated the transition to a more liberal political and economic system, a question that will reverberate for decades.

Malay Muslims

Malay Muslims PDF Author: Robert Day McAmis
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 9780802849458
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 190

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Book Description
McAmis also gives attention to the history of their relationship with Christians - a history that is key to understanding the current state of religious and social life in places like Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Since Muslims and Christians together comprise ninety-four percent of the Malay population, peaceful interaction and cooperation between mosque and church are crucial to realizing the economic and political goals of the entire region.".

The Endtimes of Human Rights

The Endtimes of Human Rights PDF Author: Stephen Hopgood
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 0801469295
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
"We are living through the endtimes of the civilizing mission. The ineffectual International Criminal Court and its disastrous first prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, along with the failure in Syria of the Responsibility to Protect are the latest pieces of evidence not of transient misfortunes but of fatal structural defects in international humanism. Whether it is the increase in deadly attacks on aid workers, the torture and 'disappearing' of al-Qaeda suspects by American officials, the flouting of international law by states such as Sri Lanka and Sudan, or the shambles of the Khmer Rouge tribunal in Phnom Penh, the prospect of one world under secular human rights law is receding. What seemed like a dawn is in fact a sunset. The foundations of universal liberal norms and global governance are crumbling."—from The Endtimes of Human RightsIn a book that is at once passionate and provocative, Stephen Hopgood argues, against the conventional wisdom, that the idea of universal human rights has become not only ill adapted to current realities but also overambitious and unresponsive. A shift in the global balance of power away from the United States further undermines the foundations on which the global human rights regime is based. American decline exposes the contradictions, hypocrisies and weaknesses behind the attempt to enforce this regime around the world and opens the way for resurgent religious and sovereign actors to challenge human rights.Historically, Hopgood writes, universal humanist norms inspired a sense of secular religiosity among the new middle classes of a rapidly modernizing Europe. Human rights were the product of a particular worldview (Western European and Christian) and specific historical moments (humanitarianism in the nineteenth century, the aftermath of the Holocaust). They were an antidote to a troubling contradiction—the coexistence of a belief in progress with horrifying violence and growing inequality. The obsolescence of that founding purpose in the modern globalized world has, Hopgood asserts, transformed the institutions created to perform it, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross and recently the International Criminal Court, into self-perpetuating structures of intermittent power and authority that mask their lack of democratic legitimacy and systematic ineffectiveness. At their best, they provide relief in extraordinary situations of great distress; otherwise they are serving up a mixture of false hope and unaccountability sustained by "human rights" as a global brand.The Endtimes of Human Rights is sure to be controversial. Hopgood makes a plea for a new understanding of where hope lies for human rights, a plea that mourns the promise but rejects the reality of universalism in favor of a less predictable encounter with the diverse realities of today's multipolar world.

Resurgent Islam and the Politics of Identity

Resurgent Islam and the Politics of Identity PDF Author: Ali A. Mazrui
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443869783
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 190

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Book Description
One of the most important functions of religion is to serve as a basis of identity. This collection of essays by Ali A. Mazrui, a distinguished scholar of Islam, discusses how Islam differentiates Muslims from non-Muslims and affects how Muslims view each other. In the light of the upheaval currently occurring in the Muslim world, this collection provides readers with valuable context for the challenges of modernity and multiculturalism faced by Muslims. In these essays, Mazrui deploys his formidable knowledge of theology, history, and Muslim societies to analyze the theological, historical, and political influences on Muslim identity. In his usual style of comparative analysis, Mazrui draws most frequently in these essays from examples in Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and Muslim communities in the West. These essays delve into the complexities of Muslim identity and stratification, and provide contributions to key debates on modern Islamic political ideology. These essays will be of interest to readers engaged with Islam, religion, culture, comparative politics and international relations.