The Best Democracy Money Can Buy

The Best Democracy Money Can Buy PDF Author: Greg Palast
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 110121323X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 407

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Book Description
"Palast is astonishing, he gets the real evidence no one else has the guts to dig up." Vincent Bugliosi, author of None Dare Call it Treason and Helter Skelter Award-winning investigative journalist Greg Palast digs deep to unearth the ugly facts that few reporters working anywhere in the world today have the courage or ability to cover. From East Timor to Waco, he has exposed some of the most egregious cases of political corruption, corporate fraud, and financial manipulation in the US and abroad. His uncanny investigative skills as well as his no-holds-barred style have made him an anathema among magnates on four continents and a living legend among his colleagues and his devoted readership. This exciting collection, now revised and updated, brings together some of Palast's most powerful writing of the past decade. Included here are his celebrated Washington Post exposé on Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris's stealing of the presidential election in Florida, and recent stories on George W. Bush's payoffs to corporate cronies, the payola behind Hillary Clinton, and the faux energy crisis. Also included in this volume are new and previously unpublished material, television transcripts, photographs, and letters.

The Best Democracy Money Can Buy

The Best Democracy Money Can Buy PDF Author: Greg Palast
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 110121323X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 407

Get Book Here

Book Description
"Palast is astonishing, he gets the real evidence no one else has the guts to dig up." Vincent Bugliosi, author of None Dare Call it Treason and Helter Skelter Award-winning investigative journalist Greg Palast digs deep to unearth the ugly facts that few reporters working anywhere in the world today have the courage or ability to cover. From East Timor to Waco, he has exposed some of the most egregious cases of political corruption, corporate fraud, and financial manipulation in the US and abroad. His uncanny investigative skills as well as his no-holds-barred style have made him an anathema among magnates on four continents and a living legend among his colleagues and his devoted readership. This exciting collection, now revised and updated, brings together some of Palast's most powerful writing of the past decade. Included here are his celebrated Washington Post exposé on Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris's stealing of the presidential election in Florida, and recent stories on George W. Bush's payoffs to corporate cronies, the payola behind Hillary Clinton, and the faux energy crisis. Also included in this volume are new and previously unpublished material, television transcripts, photographs, and letters.

Democracy and Money

Democracy and Money PDF Author: George C. Bitros
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000097129
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
The authors of this book argue that post-war fiscal and monetary policies in the U.S. are prone to more frequent and more destabilizing domestic and international financial crises. So, in the aftermath of the one that erupted in 2008, they propose that now we are sleepwalking into another, which under the prevailing institutional circumstances could develop into a worldwide financial Armageddon. Thinking ahead of such a calamity, this book presents for the first time a model of democratic governance with privately produced money based on the case of Athens in Classical times, and explains why, if it is conceived as a benchmark for reference and adaptation, it may provide an effective way out from the dreadful predicament that state managed fiat money holds for the stability of Western-type democracies and the international financial system. As the U.S. today, Athens at that time reached the apex of its military, economic, political, cultural, and scientific influence in the world. But Athens triumphed through different approaches to democracy and fundamentally different fiscal and monetary policies than the U.S. Thus the readers will have the opportunity to learn about these differences and appreciate the potential they offer for confronting the challenges contemporary democracies face under the leadership of the U.S. The book will find audiences among academics, university students, and researchers across a wide range of fields and subfields, as well as legislators, fiscal and monetary policy makers, and economic and financial consultants.

The Price of Peace

The Price of Peace PDF Author: Zachary D. Carter
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ISBN: 0525509054
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 666

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Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An “outstanding new intellectual biography of John Maynard Keynes [that moves] swiftly along currents of lucidity and wit” (The New York Times), illuminating the world of the influential economist and his transformative ideas “A timely, lucid and compelling portrait of a man whose enduring relevance is always heightened when crisis strikes.”—The Wall Street Journal WINNER: The Arthur Ross Book Award Gold Medal • The Hillman Prize for Book Journalism FINALIST: The National Book Critics Circle Award • The Sabew Best in Business Book Award NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY PUBLISHERS WEEKLY AND ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times • The Economist • Bloomberg • Mother Jones At the dawn of World War I, a young academic named John Maynard Keynes hastily folded his long legs into the sidecar of his brother-in-law’s motorcycle for an odd, frantic journey that would change the course of history. Swept away from his placid home at Cambridge University by the currents of the conflict, Keynes found himself thrust into the halls of European treasuries to arrange emergency loans and packed off to America to negotiate the terms of economic combat. The terror and anxiety unleashed by the war would transform him from a comfortable obscurity into the most influential and controversial intellectual of his day—a man whose ideas still retain the power to shock in our own time. Keynes was not only an economist but the preeminent anti-authoritarian thinker of the twentieth century, one who devoted his life to the belief that art and ideas could conquer war and deprivation. As a moral philosopher, political theorist, and statesman, Keynes led an extraordinary life that took him from intimate turn-of-the-century parties in London’s riotous Bloomsbury art scene to the fevered negotiations in Paris that shaped the Treaty of Versailles, from stock market crashes on two continents to diplomatic breakthroughs in the mountains of New Hampshire to wartime ballet openings at London’s extravagant Covent Garden. Along the way, Keynes reinvented Enlightenment liberalism to meet the harrowing crises of the twentieth century. In the United States, his ideas became the foundation of a burgeoning economics profession, but they also became a flash point in the broader political struggle of the Cold War, as Keynesian acolytes faced off against conservatives in an intellectual battle for the future of the country—and the world. Though many Keynesian ideas survived the struggle, much of the project to which he devoted his life was lost. In this riveting biography, veteran journalist Zachary D. Carter unearths the lost legacy of one of history’s most fascinating minds. The Price of Peace revives a forgotten set of ideas about democracy, money, and the good life with transformative implications for today’s debates over inequality and the power politics that shape the global order. LONGLISTED FOR THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE

Currency Democracy

Currency Democracy PDF Author: Abdurrahman Arum Rahman
Publisher: Global Currency Initiative
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 493

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Book Description
The US Dollar and the Euro are not real international currencies, but the currencies of certain countries (US) and region (Eurozone) that are "adopted" to become international currencies. This causes our global monetary and financial system to be asymmetrical. Some countries print money while others buy them. Consequently, the US and the Euro Area can buy anything from all countries in the world just by printing money from paper. They buy gold with paper. While all other countries are the opposite; they sell anything to get “paper money”. They buy paper with gold. This asymmetrical global monetary and financial system creates a very expensive cost to the world economy; exchange rate costs and fluctuations that reach hundreds of billions of dollars every year; cumulative foreign exchange reserves worth a dozen of trillions of dollars; two-thirds of countries in the world are trapped in foreign debt that cannot be paid; mass-and-cold trade wars involving all countries in the world and lasting for decades gave birth to the phenomenon of "race to the bottom" and made most developing countries trapped in the middle income (MIT); persistent global imbalances that continue to grow and become a fertile ground for monetary crisis that occurs periodically throughout the world. The Global Currency Initiative pioneered a global monetary model that is fully symmetrical and at the same time democratic. The model name is “organic global monetary” (OGM). OGM is an international currency system developed jointly by all countries in the world, or member countries and is part of their respective national currencies. Organic currency is only used for international transactions between member countries; while domestic transactions continue to use the national currency. The relationship between international currency and nationals is organic (part of) and hybrid (interconvertible). The exchange rate between organic and national currencies uses an auto-balancing so that it follows the true economic fundamentals. The organic model is an international monetary system that is natural, elegant, and very comprehensive, provides international currencies “free of charge” to all member countries, does not require foreign exchange reserves, eliminates exchange rate cost and fluctuations, makes “zero-depreciated” international currencies, eliminates foreign debt dependence, abolishing trade wars at all levels, releases countries from the middle-income trap (MIT); eliminates global imbalances, and roots out the potentials for monetary crisis. The organic model uses a fully flexible exchange rate system; therefore, it doesn't require economic integration. Thus, all countries in the world may join, without overhauling the monetary system, without losing the national currency and monetary-economic sovereignty. The organic model can also start on a small scale like the ASEAN region, South Asian, East Asian, Middle East, Latin America, East Africa, West, and Central, and many others. It may also start in several connected-regions or multi-regions. Once formed, the organic union may open to all countries in the world regardless of regional differences, income levels, economic systems, and others. All countries may join without exception. Since then, the world has a fully democratic and symmetrical alternative monetary system. Each country in the world is free to choose whether to join the organic monetary system or stay with the current system. Because the essence of democracy is to provide choices. This book is the second edition with some improvement from the first edition entitled "Global Currency Initiative". In this edition, we enhance the theory and academic. While on the other hand we still use a very simple language so that it is easily understandable by the general public; because the global currency is a common interest that everyone needs to know.

Costs of Democracy

Costs of Democracy PDF Author: Devesh Kapur
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019909313X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 383

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Book Description
One of the most troubling critiques of contemporary democracy is the inability of representative governments to regulate the deluge of money in politics. If it is impossible to conceive of democracies without elections, it is equally impractical to imagine elections without money. Costs of Democracy is an exhaustive, ground-breaking study of money in Indian politics that opens readers’ eyes to the opaque and enigmatic ways in which money flows through the political veins of the world’s largest democracy. Through original, in-depth investigation—drawing from extensive fieldwork on political campaigns, pioneering surveys, and innovative data analysis—the contributors in this volume uncover the institutional and regulatory contexts governing the torrent of money in politics; the sources of political finance; the reasons for such large spending; and how money flows, influences, and interacts with different tiers of government. The book raises uncomfortable questions about whether the flood of money risks washing away electoral democracy itself.

The Price of Democracy

The Price of Democracy PDF Author: Julia Cagé
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 067424611X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 465

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Book Description
Why and how systems of political financing and representation in Europe and North America give outsized influence to the wealthy and undermine democracy, and what we can do about it. One person, one vote. In theory, everyone in a democracy has equal power to decide elections. But it’s hardly news that, in reality, political outcomes are heavily determined by the logic of one dollar, one vote. We take the political power of money for granted. But does it have to be this way? In The Price of Democracy, Julia Cagé combines economic and historical analysis with political theory to show how profoundly our systems in North America and Europe, from think tanks and the media to election campaigns, are shaped by money. She proposes fundamental reforms to bring democracy back into line with its egalitarian promise. Cagé shows how different countries have tried to develop legislation to curb the power of private money and to develop public systems to fund campaigns and parties. But these attempts have been incoherent and unsystematic. She demonstrates that it is possible to learn from these experiments in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere to design a better system that would increase political participation and trust. This would involve setting a strict cap on private donations and creating a public voucher system to give each voter an equal amount to spend in support of political parties. More radically, Cagé argues that a significant fraction of seats in parliamentary assemblies should be set aside for representatives from disadvantaged socioeconomic groups. At a time of widespread political disenchantment, The Price of Democracy is a bracing reminder of the problems we face and an inspirational guide to the potential for reform.

When Crime Pays

When Crime Pays PDF Author: Milan Vaishnav
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300216203
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 434

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Book Description
The first thorough study of the co-existence of crime and democratic processes in Indian politics In India, the world's largest democracy, the symbiotic relationship between crime and politics raises complex questions. For instance, how can free and fair democratic processes exist alongside rampant criminality? Why do political parties recruit candidates with reputations for wrongdoing? Why are one-third of state and national legislators elected--and often re-elected--in spite of criminal charges pending against them? In this eye-opening study, political scientist Milan Vaishnav mines a rich array of sources, including fieldwork on political campaigns and interviews with candidates, party workers, and voters, large surveys, and an original database on politicians' backgrounds to offer the first comprehensive study of an issue that has implications for the study of democracy both within and beyond India's borders.

The Government of Money

The Government of Money PDF Author: Peter A. Johnson
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501744534
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 259

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Book Description
In recent years governments have increasingly given their central banks the freedom to pursue policies of price stability. In particular, the German Bundesbank and the U.S. Federal Reserve have been widely considered models of autonomous policymaking. This book traces the origins of their success to the political struggle to adopt monetarism in Germany and the United States. The Government of Money contends that the political involvement of monetarist economists was central to this endeavor. The book examines the initiatives undertaken by monetarists from 1970 to 1985 and the policies that resulted once their ideas were enacted. Taking a historical approach to major issues of political economy, Peter A. Johnson describes both the political efforts of the monetarist economists to convert central banks to their preferred policies and the resistance offered by traditionalist central bankers, politicians, and financial and labor interests. Johnson concludes that monetarist ideas succeeded in part because their supporters convincingly claimed that price stability would promote political stability. He thereby challenges important assumptions about politics and policymaking in both countries and reveals the often hidden influence of monetary policy on the health of capitalist democracies.

Dark Money

Dark Money PDF Author: Jane Mayer
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0307947904
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 577

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Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR Who are the immensely wealthy right-wing ideologues shaping the fate of America today? From the bestselling author of The Dark Side, an electrifying work of investigative journalism that uncovers the agenda of this powerful group. In her new preface, Jane Mayer discusses the results of the most recent election and Donald Trump's victory, and how, despite much discussion to the contrary, this was a huge victory for the billionaires who have been pouring money in the American political system. Why is America living in an age of profound and widening economic inequality? Why have even modest attempts to address climate change been defeated again and again? Why do hedge-fund billionaires pay a far lower tax rate than middle-class workers? In a riveting and indelible feat of reporting, Jane Mayer illuminates the history of an elite cadre of plutocrats—headed by the Kochs, the Scaifes, the Olins, and the Bradleys—who have bankrolled a systematic plan to fundamentally alter the American political system. Mayer traces a byzantine trail of billions of dollars spent by the network, revealing a staggering conglomeration of think tanks, academic institutions, media groups, courthouses, and government allies that have fallen under their sphere of influence. Drawing from hundreds of exclusive interviews, as well as extensive scrutiny of public records, private papers, and court proceedings, Mayer provides vivid portraits of the secretive figures behind the new American oligarchy and a searing look at the carefully concealed agendas steering the nation. Dark Money is an essential book for anyone who cares about the future of American democracy. National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist LA Times Book Prize Finalist PEN/Jean Stein Book Award Finalist Shortlisted for the Lukas Prize

Democracy in the Crosshairs

Democracy in the Crosshairs PDF Author: Neil Barnet
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781619775640
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description