Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea

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"A relevant primer on why the economic policy of the day has been proven to be wrongheaded. Blyth (International Political Economy/Brown Univ.; Great Transformations: Economic Ideas and Institutional Change in the Twentieth Century, 2002, etc.) recognized that austerity measures as the accepted response to the financial crisis of 2008 did not "pass the sniff test," and thus he was prompted to fashion this toned-down, "modular" work for lay readers. The punitive measures to reign in wanton state spending as proposed by conservatives have gained ground, despite the fact that the so-called sovereign debt crisis is really a banking crisis. Austerity shifts the burden of payback on those most reliant on government-produced services--i.e., the bottom 40 percent of the income distribution, leaving "no winners, only losers." The austerity measures that have been propounded by the Germans as the way to fix the European Union mess (save more, spend less) are clearly not working since everybody can't be saving at the same time: Debt is someone else's asset. Austerity may have worked for Germany, in the form of ordoliberalism ("order-based"), and select other countries in the 1930s and 1980s, but Blyth shows how conditions are respectively unique and results hardly perfect. Most fascinating is the author's discussion of the historical underpinnings of austerity, first formulated by Enlightenment thinkers Locke, Hume and Adam Smith, around the (good) idea of parsimony and the (bad) idea of debt. Ultimately, writes Blyth, austerity is a "zombie economic idea because it has been disproven time and again, but it just keeps coming." A clear explanation of a complicated, and severely flawed, idea"   (Kirkus Reviews)

Shooting for a Century: The India-Pakistan Conundrum

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"The rivalry between India and Pakistan has proven to be one of the world's most intractable international conflicts, ever since 1947 when the British botched their departure from the South Asian subcontinent. And the enmity is likely to continue for another thirty-five years, reaching the century mark. This has critical implications for both countries and the rest of the world. Renowned South Asia expert Stephen P. Cohen explains why he expects this rivalry to continue in this first comprehensive survey of the deep historical, cultural, and strategic differences that underpin the hostility.
In recent years the stakes have increased as India and Pakistan have each acquired a hundred or more nuclear weapons, blundered into several serious crises, and become victims of terrorism, some of it from across their borders. America is puzzled by the problem of dealing with a rising India and a struggling Pakistan, and Cohen offers a fresh approach for U.S. policy in dealing with these two powers.
Drawing on his rich experience in South Asia to explore the character, depth, and origin of Indian and Pakistani attitudes toward each other, Cohen develops a comprehensive theory of why the dispute between New Delhi and Islamabad is likely to persist. He also describes the terrible cost of this animosity for the citizens of India and Pakistan, including the region's high levels of violence and low level of economic integration. On a more hopeful note, however, he goes on to suggest developments that could ameliorate the tension, including a more active role for the UnitedStates in addressing a range of issues that divide the nations. Kashmir is one of these issues, but as much a consequence as a cause of the rivalry."  (Publisher Description)

Is College Worth It?: A Former United States Secretary of Education and a Liberal Arts Graduate Expose the Broken Promise of Higher Education

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"For many students, a bachelor's degree is considered the golden ticket to a more financially and intellectually fulfilling life. But the disturbing reality is that debt, unemployment, and politically charged pseudo learning are more likely outcomes for many college students today than full-time employment and time-honored knowledge.
This raises the question: is college still worth it? Who is responsible for debt-saddled, undereducated students, and how do future generations of students avoid the same problems? In a time of economic uncertainty, what majors and schools will produce competitive graduates? "Is College Worth It?" uses personal experience, statistical analysis, and real-world interviews to provide answers to some of the most troubling social and economic problems of our time. (Publisher Description)

The Roberts Court: The Struggle for the Constitution

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" Under the leadership of Chief Justice Roberts, the U.S. Supreme Court has a confident conservative majority willing to challenge the president and Congress and step beyond the bounds of the judiciary on major issues, according to Coyle, chief correspondent of the National Law Journal. From campaign finance to gun rights, from public-school integration to health care, the court has recently overruled precedents, raised unasked legal questions, and disregarded the decisions of elected officials, generating worries that the court may be becoming as partisan an institution as Congress. In separate sections, Coyle carefully and in great detail examines recent rulings on the application of Fourteenth Amendment equal protection to school integration, the Second Amendment right to bear arms, the First Amendment guarantee of free speech as applied to corporations, and the constitutional right of Congress to regulate commerce as applied to health-care reform. Coyle traces the journey of the court cases behind these issues, the conflicts and personalities behind them, and the political forces challenging or championing the underlying constitutional issues. In this insightful, important look at the Roberts court, Coyle also explores the broader implications for American politics and justice"  (Booklist)

Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization

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" K. Eric Drexler is the founding father of nanotechnology--the science of engineering on a molecular level. In "Radical Abundance," he shows how rapid scientific progress is about to change our world. Thanks to atomically precise manufacturing, we will soon have the power to produce radically more of what people want, and at a lower cost. The result will shake the very foundations of our economy and environment.
Already, scientists have constructed prototypes for circuit boards built of millions of precisely arranged atoms. The advent of this kind of atomic precision promises to change the way we make things--cleanly, inexpensively, and on a global scale. It allows us to imagine a world where solar arrays cost no more than cardboard and aluminum foil, and laptops cost about the same.
A provocative tour of cutting edge science and its implications by the field's founder and master, Radical Abundance offers a mind-expanding vision of a world hurtling toward an unexpected future." (Kirkus Reviews)

Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield

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"With the war on terrorism as subterfuge, the U.S. since the George W. Bush administration has embarked on a perpetual state of war, beyond borders, beyond the scrutiny of Congress, and beyond the codes of the Geneva Convention, according to Scahill, national security correspondent and author of the best-selling Blackwater (2007). He offers a disturbing look at the secret forces, including the military and private security contractors, carrying out missions to capture and kill enemies designated by the president. Scahill details several operations, including covert wars and the targeting of two U.S. citizens for assassination, as well as Greystone, a secret global assassination and kidnapping operation. Navy SEALs, Delta Force, the CIA, Joint Special Operations Command, ghost militias, and drone attacks all feature in chilling operations in Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Iraq, and Pakistan. Drawing on interviews with mercenaries, CIA agents, and warriors in elite forces as well as those caught in the middle, Scahill examines the dark side of dirty wars, from the private pain of sufferers to the public cost in rising suspicion of the intentions of U.S. foreign policy."  (Booklist)

The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business

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" This transformational work from Google's Schmidt and Cohen examines the boundaries of the physical world we currently inhabit and offers a vision into our digital future: a world where everyone is connected, and what it means for people, nations, and businesses. Global connectivity can help generate more jobs in internet security and intellectual property and privacy law, while offering visible figures access to media outlets for self-promotion. Schmidt and Cohen address global connectivity and the relationships between invasion of privacy and government's control over people's private information; such connectivity opens doors to identity theft and increases the risk for cyber warfare. Societies will be at risk of fragmentation, facing ethnic and religious strife, as well as trouble emerging from online communities. The possibility of cyber terrorism and cyberwarfare will increase the likelihood of "new code wars" in which silent attacks are inevitable. Schmidt and Cohen outline plans to reconstruct societies and offer ideas for innovative policies that may allow societies to recover quickly. Technology connects us all, but as we become more dependent on it, will it eliminate physical human contact altogether?"  (Publishers Weekly)

The Great Deformation: The Corruption of Capitalism in America

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"Stockman, veteran of the Reagan White House and Wall Street, offers his self-described polemic, a wide-ranging indictment of the American government-economic complex; free markets and democracy have been under long-term attack, and the author explains why we have myriad problems, perhaps intractable. He indicates the book contains much original interpretation of financial and public policy events and trends of the last century, even a revisionist framework. Stockman concludes his lengthy controversial argument with: the cure . . . is to return to sound money and fiscal rectitude and to correct the great error initiated during the New Deal . . . . In pursuing humanitarian purposes the state cannot and need not attempt to manage the business cycle or goose the free market with stimulants for more growth and jobs; nor can it afford the universal entitlements of social insurance. Its job is to be a trustee for citizens left behind, maintaining a sturdy, fair and efficient safety net. This thought-provoking book will contribute to important debates on these issues."  (Booklist)

Foreign Policy Begins at Home: The Case for Putting America's House in Order

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"The greatest threat to national security is not a rising China or Islamic terrorists or North Korea's nuclear power. Instead, our greatest security threat lies in divisive politics and fiscal deficits brought on by costly wars that have resulted in underinvestment in human capital. Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations with foreign policy experience in four administrations, is not arguing for isolationism but for a sharper evaluation of why we go to war and what it costs us. He begins with a historical perspective on U.S. foreign policy as it has evolved from the Cold War to U.S. primacy to a new era of rising powers and emerging nations. But his primary focus is on domestic policythe need to reverse the decline of U.S. competitiveness, stabilize the middle class, and strengthen the economy. Haass follows up his The Reluctant Sheriff (1997) and The Opportunity (2006) to make his case that a focus on economics, energy, education, immigration, and other domestic issues, including fractious politics, can strengthen the nation from within and bolster its ability to deal with any external threats."  (Booklist)

Two Nations Indivisible: Mexico, the United States, and the Road Ahead

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"Nearing the tenth anniversary of NAFTA, relations between the United States and Mexico are as critical, and as difficult, as ever. With immigration reform a long-promised but undelivered goal, and the news from south of the border mostly related to drug trafficking and unending violence, Americans are increasingly suspicious of their neighbor. O'Neil, a senior fellow for Latin American studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, argues that, contrary to popular perception, Mexico is well on its way to building resilient, democratic institutions and a robust economy, and that bilateral ties continue to hold great promise. Though she points out positive indicators in many arenas, she is less sanguine about Mexico's local police forces and judicial system: "Officers are expected to share extracurricular earnings with their superiors" and "more than 80 percent of crimes are never reported." A background in international finance gives O'Neil insight into the workings of the economy, and she is at her most persuasive highlighting the importance of cross-border trade and freedom of movement to both countries. She chronicles how, beginning in the 1880s, "the frontier slowly hardened into a border, " precipitating unintended but far-reaching consequences for all. A good political and economic history of modern Mexico, the book will be of interest to those seeking a deeper understanding of the country."  (Publishers Weekly)

Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution

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" From the former Republican governor of Florida and a leading constitutional litigator comes a timely and provocative look at one of the most divisive issues facing the nation today: immigration."  (Publisher Description)

The Thistle and the Drone: How America's War on Terror Became a Global War on Tribal Islam

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"American firepower and its vast anti-terror network have turned the war on terror into a global war on tribal Islam. And too often the victims are innocent children at school, women in their homes, workers simply trying to earn a living, and worshipers in their mosques. Battered by military attacks or drone strikes one day and suicide bombers the next, the tribes bemoan, "Every day is like 9/11 for us."
In "The Thistle and the Drone," the third volume in Ahmed's groundbreaking trilogy examining relations between America and the Muslim world, the author draws on forty case studies representing the global span of Islam to demonstrate how the U.S. has become involved directly or indirectly in each of these societies. The study provides the social and historical context necessary to understand how both central governments and tribal societies have become embroiled in America's war. Beginning with Waziristan and expanding to societies in Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and elsewhere, Ahmed offers a fresh approach to the conflicts studied and presents an unprecedented paradigm for understanding and winning the war on terror."  (Publisher Description)