Stuck in Neutral

Stuck in Neutral PDF Author: Cathie Jo Martin
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691009619
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 277

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Book Description
According to conventional wisdom, big business wields enormous influence over America's political agenda and is responsible for the relatively limited scale of the country's social policies. In Stuck in Neutral, however, Cathie Jo Martin challenges that view, arguing that big business has limited involvement in social policy and in many instances desires broader social interventions. Combining hundreds of in-depth interviews with careful quantitative analysis, Martin shows that there is strong support among managers for government-sponsored training, health, work, and family initiatives to enhance workers' skills and productivity. This support does not translate into political action, surprisingly, because big firms are not organized to intervene effectively. Every large company has its own staff to deal with government affairs, but overarching organizations for the most part lobby ineffectively for the collective interests of big business in the social realm. By contrast, small firms, which cannot afford to lobby the government directly, rely on representative associations to speak for them. The unified voice of small business comes through much more clearly in policy circles than the diverse messages presented by individual corporations, ensuring that the small-business agenda of limited social policy prevails. A vivid portrayal of the interplay between business and politics, Stuck in Neutral offers a fresh take on some of the most controversial issues of our day. It is a must read for anyone interested in the past, present, and future of the American welfare state and political economy.

Stuck in Neutral

Stuck in Neutral PDF Author: Cathie Jo Martin
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691009619
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 277

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Book Description
According to conventional wisdom, big business wields enormous influence over America's political agenda and is responsible for the relatively limited scale of the country's social policies. In Stuck in Neutral, however, Cathie Jo Martin challenges that view, arguing that big business has limited involvement in social policy and in many instances desires broader social interventions. Combining hundreds of in-depth interviews with careful quantitative analysis, Martin shows that there is strong support among managers for government-sponsored training, health, work, and family initiatives to enhance workers' skills and productivity. This support does not translate into political action, surprisingly, because big firms are not organized to intervene effectively. Every large company has its own staff to deal with government affairs, but overarching organizations for the most part lobby ineffectively for the collective interests of big business in the social realm. By contrast, small firms, which cannot afford to lobby the government directly, rely on representative associations to speak for them. The unified voice of small business comes through much more clearly in policy circles than the diverse messages presented by individual corporations, ensuring that the small-business agenda of limited social policy prevails. A vivid portrayal of the interplay between business and politics, Stuck in Neutral offers a fresh take on some of the most controversial issues of our day. It is a must read for anyone interested in the past, present, and future of the American welfare state and political economy.

The Politics of Capital Investment

The Politics of Capital Investment PDF Author: Carolyn Teich Adams
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780887068478
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 214

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Book Description
This book examines both the politics and products of the public investment process in one of America's largest cities. It broadens the scope of contemporary debates on the political economy of urban development to include not only large-scale redevelopment projects, but also neighborhood facilities such as schools, parks, and libraries. Showing the share of investments that went into Philadelphia's downtown versus its residential neighborhoods from 1950 to 1980, the author challenges the widely held view that public investment patterns simply reflect political pressures from pro-development groups. Instead she shows that a city's decision to build often hinges on the availability and the sources of investment capital.

The Politics of Capital Investment

The Politics of Capital Investment PDF Author: Carolyn T. Adams
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780887068485
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
This book examines both the politics and products of the public investment process in one of America’s largest cities. It broadens the scope of contemporary debates on the political economy of urban development to include not only large-scale redevelopment projects, but also neighborhood facilities such as schools, parks, and libraries. Showing the share of investments that went into Philadelphia’s downtown versus its residential neighborhoods from 1950 to 1980, the author challenges the widely held view that public investment patterns simply reflect political pressures from pro-development groups. Instead she shows that a city’s decision to build often hinges on the availability and the sources of investment capital.

City of Capital

City of Capital PDF Author: Bruce G. Carruthers
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691049602
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 317

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Book Description
"While many have examined how economic interests motivate political action, Bruce Carruthers explores the reverse relationship by focusing on how political interests shape a market. He sets his inquiry within the context of late Stuart England, when an active stock market emerged and when Whig and Tory parties vied for control of a newly empowered Parliament. Probing such connections between politics and markets at both institutional and individual levels, Carruthers ultimately argues that competitive markets are not inherently apolitical spheres guided by economic interest but rather ongoing creations of social actors pursuing multiple goals." -- BACK COVER.

The Politics of Capital Investment

The Politics of Capital Investment PDF Author: Carolyn T. Adams
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791494241
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
This book examines both the politics and products of the public investment process in one of America's largest cities. It broadens the scope of contemporary debates on the political economy of urban development to include not only large-scale redevelopment projects, but also neighborhood facilities such as schools, parks, and libraries. Showing the share of investments that went into Philadelphia's downtown versus its residential neighborhoods from 1950 to 1980, the author challenges the widely held view that public investment patterns simply reflect political pressures from pro-development groups. Instead she shows that a city's decision to build often hinges on the availability and the sources of investment capital.

Golden Rule

Golden Rule PDF Author: Thomas Ferguson
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022616201X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 439

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Book Description
"To discover who rules, follow the gold." This is the argument of Golden Rule, a provocative, pungent history of modern American politics. Although the role big money plays in defining political outcomes has long been obvious to ordinary Americans, most pundits and scholars have virtually dismissed this assumption. Even in light of skyrocketing campaign costs, the belief that major financial interests primarily determine who parties nominate and where they stand on the issues—that, in effect, Democrats and Republicans are merely the left and right wings of the "Property Party"—has been ignored by most political scientists. Offering evidence ranging from the nineteenth century to the 1994 mid-term elections, Golden Rule shows that voters are "right on the money." Thomas Ferguson breaks completely with traditional voter centered accounts of party politics. In its place he outlines an "investment approach," in which powerful investors, not unorganized voters, dominate campaigns and elections. Because businesses "invest" in political parties and their candidates, changes in industrial structures—between large firms and sectors—can alter the agenda of party politics and the shape of public policy. Golden Rule presents revised versions of widely read essays in which Ferguson advanced and tested his theory, including his seminal study of the role played by capital intensive multinationals and international financiers in the New Deal. The chapter "Studies in Money Driven Politics" brings this aspect of American politics into better focus, along with other studies of Federal Reserve policy making and campaign finance in the 1936 election. Ferguson analyzes how a changing world economy and other social developments broke up the New Deal system in our own time, through careful studies of the 1988 and 1992 elections. The essay on 1992 contains an extended analysis of the emergence of the Clinton coalition and Ross Perot's dramatic independent insurgency. A postscript on the 1994 elections demonstrates the controlling impact of money on several key campaigns. This controversial work by a theorist of money and politics in the U.S. relates to issues in campaign finance reform, PACs, policymaking, public financing, and how today's elections work.

The Politics of Public Fund Investing

The Politics of Public Fund Investing PDF Author: Ben Finkelstein
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 074329761X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 211

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Book Description
Until now, there has never been a book to help public fund managers direct fixed-income portfolios while simultaneously balancing politics, or the need to preserve principal, with economics, or the need to optimize income. The Politics of Public Fund Investing approaches public fund management from the lay perspective, providing much-needed guidance to modify Wall Street strategies to serve the needs of Main Street. If you manage a public fund, if you are an elected official, or if you oversee a portfolio for a foundation or an endowment, you know the traditional money management strategy used every day on Wall Street doesn't necessarily apply to your situation. For you, investing isn't simply about economics. Wall Street strategies do not take into account election cycles, political risk factors, or the unique performance assessments public funds must undergo. When Wall Street builds a portfolio, it doesn't need to consider the opinions and desires of a wide variety of constituents, and the management of the portfolio's performance doesn't carry the same level of career risk. This groundbreaking book is the first resource ever available to the stewards of public fund investing entrusted with the responsibility to make financial decisions in this unique environment. The Politics of Public Fund Investing shows readers how to evaluate and measure their funds' performance through specific techniques, standards, and procedures. It begins by addressing the key differences between Wall Street and Main Street, explaining which methods of Wall Street are unsuited to public fund management and why. The book provides a framework for moving from a static investment policy to a dynamic investment plan, making the important distinction between what is "legal" in terms of policy and what is "suitable" in terms of the objectives of the stakeholders. The book goes on to propose exceptional and beneficial insights into appraising a fund's performance along with providing a four-step process to build a politically correct portfolio. Finally, it shows how to be safe and optimize income within the constraints of acceptable risk. Based on years of experience and invaluable research, The Politics of Public Fund Investing is an innovative, compelling, and much-needed guide to navigating the complex territory where the political environment meets public investing.

Capital Choices

Capital Choices PDF Author: Juergen Braunstein
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 0472129961
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
Sovereign wealth funds are state-controlled pools of capital that hold financial and real assets, including shares of state enterprises, and manage them to grow the nation’s base of sovereign wealth. The dramatic rise of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) in both number and size—this group is now larger than the size of global private equity and hedge funds, combined—and the fact that most are located in non-OECD countries, has raised concern about the direction of capitalism. Yet SWFs are not a homogenous group of actors. Why do some countries with large current account surpluses, notably China, create SWFs while others, such as Switzerland and Germany, do not? Why do other countries with no macroeconomic justification, such as Senegal and Turkey, create SWFs? And why do countries with similar macroeconomic features, such as Kuwait and Qatar or Singapore and Hong Kong, choose different types of SWFs? Capital Choices analyzes the creation of different SWFs from a comparative political economy perspective, arguing that different state-society structures at the sectoral level are the drivers for SWF variation. Juergen Braunstein focuses on the early formation period of SWFs, a critical but little understood area given the high levels of political sensitivity and lack of transparency that surround SWF creation. Braunstein’s novel analytical framework provides practical lessons for the business and finance organizations and policymakers of countries that have created, or are planning to create, SWFs.

The Purpose of Capital

The Purpose of Capital PDF Author: Jed Emerson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781732453104
Category : Capital
Languages : en
Pages : 364

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Book Description
An exploration of our understanding of the purpose of capital and the cultural, historic and environmental aspects of how we have come to understand the relation between economic, social and environmental components of capital. Offers a vision of capital as a fuel to promote individual freedom in the context of community and Earth.

The Perils of International Capital

The Perils of International Capital PDF Author: Faisal Z. Ahmed
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110848865X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description
Shows how financial globalization can be perilous, holding the capacity to finance the durability of authoritarian governments.