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Suggestions for the Fall of 2008.
| Title | Author | Information | Submitted by |
| Maxed Out: Hard Times in the Age of Easy Credit | James D. Scurlock | Amazon $12 | The Group |
| In this companion to his documentary film of the same name, Scurlock takes a provocative though scattershot tour of 'debt hell,' exploring Americans' use and misuse of credit. He introduces us to upbeat debt collectors, downbeat academics, motivational speakers who insist that we can get out of debt by refinancing our homes and 'skipping the a.m. latte,' and 'average Americans who are swimming in debt.' Scurlock's villains are Visa, Citibank, credit bureaus, legislators who do the financial industry's bidding and a system of credit that 'has mutated into a relentlessly efficient and voracious machine.' We learn that most consumers who teeter on the brink of bankruptcy aren't bad people_they've just taken all those no-credit-buy-anyway ads at face value. It's all pretty involving, though as with most documentarians, Scurlock is only as good as his sources_and in print, anecdotes and testimonials aren't necessarily the best way to convey complex information or make an airtight case. The author also oversimplifies issues ('banking is about selling a single product: debt'), avoids engaging anyone who might challenge his banks-are-evil argument and turns occasional tangents into full-fledged digressions. But Scurlock deserves credit (no pun intended) for opening more eyes to this dire issue. (Feb.) | |||
| The Squandering of America: How the Failure of Our Politics Undermines Our Prosperity | Robert Kuttner | Amazon $14 | The Group |
| As Keynesianism has been surpassed by a resurgent free market ideology, many of the policies, institutions and regulations of the New Deal have been abandoned in favor of a more business-friendly orientation. Kuttner argues that these changes have further enriched the already wealthy at the expense of America's lower and middle classes, exacerbating inequality and systematically weakening the economy. The controversial American Prospect editor favors a form of soft capitalism, in which the vicissitudes of the market and the risk to which it exposes ordinary Americans are tempered by government intervention_or, as he colorfully puts it, public regulation of the market's self-cannibalizing tendencies. Bringing a wealth of historical knowledge to bear on the problems of financial regulation, Kuttner compares the causes of the Great Depression and other economic crises to behavior patterns evident in our market system today, with unfavorable conclusions. However, much of the argumentation may be too technical to hold the interest of a nonspecialist for very long. While some of Kuttner's statistics are dubious and some of his policy recommendations have been thoroughly and universally discredited (e.g., reregulation of the airline industry, bringing the Federal Reserve under presidential control), his book is a useful corrective to more extreme libertarian works. | |||
| Where Does the Money Go? Your Guided Tour to the Federal Budget Crisis | Scott Bittle, Jean Johnson | Amazon $12 | The Group |
| Federal debt will affect your savings, your retirement, your mortgage, your health care, and your children. How well do you understand the government decisions that will end up coming out of your pocket? Here is essential information that every American citizen needs_and has the right_to know. This guide to deciphering the jargon of the country's budget problem covers everything from the country's $9 trillion and growing debt to the fact that, for thirty-one out of the last thirty-five years, the country has spent more on government programs and services than it has collected in taxes. It also explores why elected leaders on every side of the fence have so far failed to effectively address this issue and explains what you can do to protect your future. | |||
| Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism | Kevin Phillips | Amazon $16 | The Group |
| Bad money refers to a new phenomenon in wayward megafinance_the emergence of a U.S. economy that is globally dependent and dominated by hubris-driven financial services. Also bad are the risk miscalculations and strategic abuses of new multitrillion-dollar products such as asset-backed securities and the lure of buccaneering vehicles like hedge funds. Finally, the U.S. dollar has been turned into bad money as it has weakened and become vulnerable to the world's other currencies. In all these ways, bad finance has failed the American people and pointed U.S. capitalism toward a global crisis. Bad Money is the perfect follow- up to Phillips's last book, whose dire warnings are now proving frighteningly accurate. | |||
| The Post-American World | Fareed Zakaria | $25.65 Hardback | Art Smoot |
| Book Description "This is not a book about the decline of America, but rather about the rise of everyone else." So begins Fareed Zakaria's important new work on the era we are now entering. Following on the success of his best-selling The Future of Freedom, Zakaria describes with equal prescience a world in which the United States will no longer dominate the global economy, orchestrate geopolitics, or overwhelm cultures. He sees the "rise of the rest"—the growth of countries like China, India, Brazil, Russia, and many others—as the great story of our time, and one that will reshape the world. The tallest buildings, biggest dams, largest-selling movies, and most advanced cell phones are all being built outside the United States. This economic growth is producing political confidence, national pride, and potentially international problems. How should the United States understand and thrive in this rapidly changing international climate? What does it mean to live in a truly global era? Zakaria answers these questions with his customary lucidity, insight, and imagination." | |||
| The Limits of Power, The End of American Exceptionalism | Andrew Bacevich | Amazon $14 | Orah Elron |
| From Publishers Weekly In this caustic critique of the growing American penchant for empire and sense of entitlement, Bacevich (The New American Militarism) examines the citizenry's complicity in the current economic, political, and military crisis. A retired army colonel, the author efficiently pillories the recent performance of the armed forces, decrying it as an expression of domestic dysfunction, with leaders and misguided strategies ushering the nation into a global war of no exits and no deadlines. Arguing that the tendency to blame solely the military or the Bush administration is as illogical as blaming Herbert Hoover for the Great Depression, Bacevich demonstrates how the civilian population is ultimately culpable; in citizens' appetite for unfettered access to resources, they have tacitly condoned the change of military service from a civic function into an economic enterprise. Crisp prose, sweeping historical analysis and searing observations on the roots of American decadence elevate this book from mere scolding to an urgent call for rational thinking and measured action, for citizens to wise up and put their house in order. (Sept. 1) " | |||
| Ending Entrenched Power: Spiritual renewal, political change and America's destiny | Curtis Harris | Amazon $15 | Art Smoot |
| Product Description "At the beginning of the 21st Century, the United St ates of America is the only super-power on Earth, and is the latest of many societies and civilizations to rise to unprecedented levels of power and wealth. None of those past societies were able to extend, or even maintain, their successes. There were many reasons for their declines, and one underlying cause that began the process. America is no exception. America faces a fork in the road to the future. America's choice will largely determine the fate of humanity. Ending Entrenched Power takes a new and ambitious approach to humanity's problems and opportunities. Using human society's primary institutions, religion, government and commerce for a framework, it links spiritual life and political conduct. Today, modern societies, in a desire to politically unite people of different faiths, divorce religion from government. These governments become amoral institutions focused on power and bureaucracy The challenge for future leaders is to unite people through the spiritual principles common to all religions. The result will be religions, governments and economies that serve the best interests of societies as they proceed towards the destiny of humanity. " | |||
| Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How It Can Renew America | Thomas Friedman | Hard Copy, $18.00 | Linda Stelzer |
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Thomas L. Friedman's phenomenal number-one bestseller The World Is Flat has helped millions of readers to see the world in a new way. In his brilliant, essential new book, Friedman takes a fresh and provocative look at two of the biggest challenges we face today: America's surprising loss of focus and national purpose since 9/11; and the global environmental crisis, which is affecting everything from food to fuel to forests. In this groundbreaking account of where we stand now, he shows us how the solutions to these two big problems are linked--how we can restore the world and revive America at the same time.
Friedman explains how global warming, rapidly growing populations, and the astonishing expansion of the world's middle class through globalization have produced a planet that is _hot, flat, and crowded._ Already the earth is being affected in ways that threaten to make it dangerously unstable. In just a few years, it will be too late to fix things--unless the United States steps up now and takes the lead in a worldwide effort to replace our wasteful, inefficient energy practices with a strategy for clean energy, energy efficiency, and conservation that Friedman calls Code Green. This is a great challenge, Friedman explains, but also a great opportunity, and one that America cannot afford to miss. Not only is American leadership the key to the healing of the earth; it is also our best strategy for the renewal of America. In vivid, entertaining chapters, Friedman makes it clear that the green revolution we need is like no revolution the world has seen. It will be the biggest innovation project in American history; it will be hard, not easy; and it will change everything from what you put into your car to what you see on your electric bill. But the payoff for America will be more than just cleaner air. It will inspire Americans to something we haven't seen in a long time--nation-building in America--by summoning the intelligence, creativity, boldness, and concern for the common good that are our nation's greatest natural resources. " | |||
| Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization | Lester Brown | Paperback, $15 | Orah Elron |
| In this updated edition of the landmark Plan B, Lester Brown outlines a survival strategy for our early twenty-first-century civilization. The world faces many environmental trends of disruption and decline, including rising temperatures and spreading water shortage. In addition to these looming threats, we face the peaking of oil, annual population growth of 70 million, a widening global economic divide, and a growing list of failing states. The scale and complexity of issues facing our fast-forward world have no precedent With Plan A, business as usual, we have neglected these issues overly long. In Plan B 3.0, Lester R. Brown warns that the only effective response now is a World War II-type mobilization like that in the United States after the attack on Pearl Harbor. | |||
| The World at RIsk | Goverment Report | 106 pages on internet | Paul Silvers |
| A government report which explains that the government expects a WMD attack in the next few years. | |||